













COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 


















for tfjr 

dlmmtry nf JOtfo 



Compiled and Arranged 
by 

Rev. L. H. McLei&er 



Let the words of my mouth , and the meditation of 
my heart , be acceptable in thy sight , 0 LORD, my rock 
and my redeemer. Ps. 19:14 . 



Copyright, 1921 

v by 

L. H. McLeister 


i 




? * 

i »>» 

- £ 


§)CL A654859 



Tm u i 7 yyi<xH~. W'xzi 


3ntxabuttxtm 

jWTE OFTEN hear the remark, “If you find a good 

' thln ?, tell somebody else;’’ for this reason we 
ake great pleasure in introducing to the Christians 
ol all denominations this book. 

We do not hesitate to say that the reader will find 
it extremely interesting and helpful,—an educator 
m itself; a compendium of every day wants. Chiefly 
so, because it deals with every phase of the Chris¬ 
tian’s life, and also contains some of the choicest 
soul food to be found outside of the Bible. 

Its teaching is safe, sane, and scriptural, and per¬ 
fectly free from a sectarian spirit. 

We would earnestly desire that every believer 
might have the joyful privilege of meditating upon 
the truths which are here so clearly set forth. Our 
prayer is that the book may do much good and have 
the widest circulation possible. 

Respectfully, 

Evangelist J. M. Humphrey. 


m 


3tttrnJnirtum 

“What better fame, what more enduring monu¬ 
ment, can a man have than he whose thoughts live 
after him, whose words are lifted up like banners to 
call humanity to worthier living?” The writings 
of good men and women have had a greater influence 
for the uplift, happiness and eternal well-being of 
humanity than all other agencies combined. 

The first copy of the law given by God to men was 
inscribed on tables of stone by the hand of the Al¬ 
mighty One. The history of the creation, the fall of 
man into sin and the consequent estrangement from 
his Creator and Friend, and the early chapters of 
redemption’s plan were written by the great law¬ 
giver under the direction and inspiration of the 
Spirit of God. A knowledge of all that is essential 
to life and salvation has also been communicated to 
men and left upon record for the welfare of the race, 
under the immediate direction of the Holy Spirit. 

Is it any wonder that under the inspiration of the 
matchless example of the great God Himself and the 
impulse of His holy religion in their hearts, that 
holy men and women in all ages have penned their 
thoughts and left them on record as a means of en¬ 
couragement and help to their fellow men? The 
influence of Christian literature is beyond calcula- 

IT 


tion and is the mightiest instrument for good in use 
at the present time. The words holy men use may 
die with them, but the words they write live after 
them in an ever increasing volume of Christian ser¬ 
vice. - j 

Scarcely less important is the service of the per* 
son who makes it his ministry on earth to search out 
the best thoughts of others and give them to the 
race. Many of the best writings, especially those 
of the past, are not available to the majority of peo¬ 
ple, while sensational fiction, error and falsehood 
are flaunted and almost forced upon the attention of 
every one. There is always a place for choice selec¬ 
tions from the best writers upon topics helpful to 
Christian life and the encouragement of the weary 
and discouraged. 

In putting in an available form this choice collec¬ 
tion from the writings of the best authors of the past 

and present the Rev. L. H. McLeister has performed 
* 

a worthy service which will be sincerely appreciated 
by all lovers of God and humanity to whose atten¬ 
tion this book may come. We heartily commend it 
to the perusal and thoughtful consideration of both 
old and young. There is scarcely an experience in 
life for which some helpful paragraph will not be 
found. May this book have the widest possible cir¬ 
culation and go on doing good as long as time shall 
last. Sincerely Your Brother, 

F. A. Butterfield, 
Editor, Wesleyan Methodist. 


▼ 


Jlrrfatonj Nate 

All must travel the journey of life. None ever 
return to again possess its opportunities. Some are 
starting out in its morning hour, others are traveling 
under a vertical sun, while old age is nearing the 
sunset. Who may finish their journey first,— 
none can tell. Far more important is it that we 
“run well” rather than that we run long. At the 
journey’s end some will hear, “Come, ye blessed of 
my Father,” others will hear, “Depart from me, ye 
cursed.” 

With the earnest hope that some Christian themes, 
with expository thoughts by holy men, may glorify 
God in bringing salvation, holiness, courage and 
blessing to the sojourner, we prayerfully dedicate 
this book to all its readers. 


Canton, Ohio. 


L. H. M. 


(Jantenta 


Affliction, ..—. 

Assurance,___ 

Believing, _ 

Christ’s Coming, .. 

Character, _ 

Christians, ...__ 

Conversion,_ 

Conscience, . 

Contentment,_.... 

Courage , ___ 

Death, '_ 

Faith, _ 

Forgiveness, .. 

Grace,... 

Happiness, _ 

Heaven, _ 

Hell, _ 

Holiness, _ 

Humility, __ 

Joy, - 

Blindness, _ 

Life,___ 

Love,_ 


^ 9 
_ 13 

.... 17 

_ 21 
... 26 

_ 29 
... 34 
.. 38 
_ 42 

_46 

.... 50 
.... 55 
_ 61 
..... 66 
.... 71 
.... 75 
.... 81 
.... 86 
92 
... 95 
—100 


Meditations, 


_103 

_108 

_114 


yn 
















































Obedience, 
Peace, — 
Prayer, 


Pride, __ 

Redemption, 
Riches,_ 


Scripture,..— 

Sin, ---- 

Submission, _ 

Suffering, _ 

Temptation, ......._ 

Trials, _ 

The Cross, _ 

The Resurrection, _... 

Volition, _ 

Worldliness, _ 

Worship, ___ 






_119 

_124 

__128 

_134 

_137 

_142 

_147 

_152 

_158 

..162 

_167 

_171 

_175 

__180 

_184 

.—188 

193 


VIII 


























Afflirtimi 

It is good for me that I have been afflicted. Ps. 119:71. 

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, work- 
eth for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory: 
while we look not at the things which are seen but at the 
things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are 
temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. 
II Cor. 4:17-18. 


Jesus takes those he loves into Gethsemane and 
farther.—W. M. Taylor. 


“Ah!” said Luther, affliction is the best book 
in my library. 


Poor miserable weaklings would we be if every¬ 
thing in life were to flow as smoothly as the sea. 


Generally prosperity is a sweet poison, and afflic¬ 
tion, a healing, though bitter medicine.—John Wes¬ 
ley. 


What is termed afflictions in the language of 
man, are in the language of God styled blessings.— 
John Wesley. 


One of the greatest evidences of God’s love to 








10 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


those that love Him, is to send them afflictions with 
grace to hear them.(—John Wesley. 

Afflictions are often the shadow of God’s arm. 
The darker the night the brighter the stars. The 
hotter the fire, the purer the gold. 


In nothing, perhaps is it so hard to feel for our¬ 
selves ; and to help others to feel that God is good, as 
in life’s great afflictions. We are so prone to look 
only at the present sorrow and forget the future joy. 
—A. T. Pierson. 


Then we shall look back upon all the evils (as we 
thought them) and various circumstances of our 
earthly pilgrimage, and find motives of praise to 
God for his mercy and wisdom in every one of them. 
Joseph is now blessing his Redeemer for the prison, 
Job for his ashhill, Jeremiah for his lamentations, 
and Lazarus for his sores.—Ambrose Serle. 


“Alas!” cried a diamond to the wheel upon which 
it was being cut, “here I have been tortured for the 
last three days. What a misfortune it was that I 
ever came your way!” “Say not so,” replied the 
wheel in encouraging tones. “The last stone which 
came to me was so rough and dull that you could 
scarcely tell it was a diamond; but when I had done 
with it, it was placed in a king’s crown.—!Sel. 


Up to this moment I, God’s servant beg to bear 







AFFLICTION 


11 


my unreserved testimony to the fact that it is good 
for me to have been afflicted. In spiritual life and 
knowledge and power, I have grown but little ex¬ 
cept when under the hand of trouble. I set my 
door open and am half-inclined to say to pain and 
sickness and sadness, “Turn in hither; for I know 
that you will leave a blessing behind. ,, Come 
crosses, if you will; for you always turn to crowns. 
—C. H. Spurgeon. 


Srflrrttmtfi 

It is said that gardeners sometimes, when they 
would bring a rose to richer flowering, deprive it for 
a season of light and moisture. Silent and dark it 
stands, dropping one faded leaf after another, and 
seeming to go down patiently to death. But when 
every leaf is dropped and the plant stands stripped 
to the uttermost, a new life is even then working in 
the buds from which shall spring a tender foliage 
and a brighter wealth of flowers. So, often in 
celestial gardening every leaf of earthly joy must 
drop before a new and divine bloom visits the soul. 
—Mrs. H. B. Stowe. 


Some of the greatest revelations of God have come 
in the hours of affliction. Job in his hour of dark 
affliction was the first to see God as the Redeemer. 
Moses, who chose to “suffer affliction’’ saw the 
burning bush and talked with God. Stephen in his 
affliction said, “Behold I see the heavens opened and 





12 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


/ 


the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.” 
Paul in his “light affliction,” (supposedly when he 
was stoned at Lystra) was caught up into the third 
heaven. John banished to the isle of Patmos saw, 
1 ‘the new Jerusalem coming down from God, out of 
heaven.” In that hour when the Son of man was 
“stricken smitten of God and afflicted,” the earth 
trembled, the sun veiled its face and the centurian 
said, “Truly this was the Son of God.” 


^rrtplurr 

Affliction, 

Object of, Ps. 66:11, 12; Isa. 48:10, 11; II Cor. 1: 
6; 4:17. 

Benefits of, Job 23:10; Ps. 119 :50, 67; Hosea 5:15; 
Heb. 12:10. 

Deliverance from, Ps. 34:19; Prov. 12:13; Isa. 63: 
9; II Tim. 3 ill. 



Afiaitratttt 

Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of 
faith. Heb. 10:22. 

And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the 
effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever. 
Isaiah 32:17. 


Salvation is as secure as Christ could make it, and 
as well ordered as God could plan it.—Ambrose 
Serle. 


He is Lord of Hosts for the protection and salva¬ 
tion of his people, and also for the destruction and 
overthrow of their enemies and his own.—Ambrose 
Serle. 


God will as surely support his Church on earth, 
as he will support the earth itself; and while the 
sun and moon endure the Church shall flourish.— 
Adam Clarke. 


Generally, wherever the Gospel is preached in a 
clear and scriptural manner, more than ninety-nine 
in a hundred do know the exact time when they are 
justified.—John "Wesley. 


For a man to know the excellencies of heaven, 







14 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


and not to know whether he shall ever enjoy them, 
may well raise desire, but it will raise but little joy 
and content. Sit not down without assurance.— 
Baxter. 


4 * Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus 
who, according to His abundant mercy hath begot¬ 
ten us again to a lively hope.” The new birth en¬ 
titles to the new hope; if the soul be dead the hope 
cannot be alive.—Gurnall. 


When the Lord of Hosts can lose his power, or the 
God of truth become a liar, then, and then only, 
shall they who lean upon his arm, and believe in his 
word, perish from their hopes, and be deceived into 
destruction.—Ambrose Serle. 


Satan knows that he can never overthrow the ful¬ 
filment of the Word of God, the promises of God or 
the purpose of God, but Satan does believe that he 
can overthrow your confidence and mine in the ver¬ 
acity of the inspired Scriptures,—Rev. Herbert Mac¬ 
kenzie. 


We abuse assurance when we grow presumptuous 
and less fearful of sin. What, because a father gives 
his son an assurance of his love and tells him that 
he will entail his land upon him, shall the son there¬ 
fore be wanton and dissolute.—Watson. 


“The full assurance of hope,” is certainly nothing 







ASSURANCE 


15 


less than the strong confirmation of a good hope 
based upon a true scriptural foundation, wrought in 
us by the Holy Spirit: placing the helmet of Salva¬ 
tion so firmly upon our head that it cannot be dis¬ 
placed by all the powers of earth and hell—Rev. R. 
"W. Hawkins. 


“I go to prepare a place for you.” If Christ has 
prepared a place for us, he will prepare us for it, 
and in due time put us in possession of it. As the 
resurrection of Christ is the assurance of our resur¬ 
rection, so his ascension, victory, and glory, are an 
assurance of ours.—Matthew Henry. 


The earnest and sealing of the Spirit implies ab¬ 
solute assurance of present salvation: for though 
this efficacy of the Spirit is, in itself, sufficient to 
insure eternal salvation, yet every believer is left 
free to retain or to so grieve this sealing Spirit, as 
to cause his withdrawal finally and forever, Isaiah 
63:10; Eph. 4:30; Heb. 3 :7-19.—Rev. Amos Binney. 


Be careful to keep thy old receipts which thou 
hast had from God for the pardon of thy sins. It 
behooves thee to lay them up safely: such a testi¬ 
mony may serve to non-suit thy accuser many years 
hence. One affirmative from God’s mouth, for thy 
pardoned state, carries more weight (though of old 
date) than a thousand negatives from Satan’s— 
Gurnall. 





16 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


Sin shrouded the soul with a pall of blackness, 
excluding the glorious sunlight: but perfect faith in 
Jesus Christ removes the pall, and the long-lost light 
again fills all the spirit. The soul, amid the intens¬ 
ity of this spiritual illumination, enjoys an assur¬ 
ance of salvation which could not be increased were 

that fact written by Gabriel in letters of fire across 

♦ 

the arches of the sky. No amount of testimony hu¬ 
man or angelic, can increase the certitude of the 
soul lit up by the presence of the Comforter.. We 
do not need lanterns to see the sun rise. He brings 
his own self-revealing light—Daniel Steele. 


I 


ifclmnng 

Who hath believed our report? Isa. 53:1. 

But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he 
that eometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is 
a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Heb. 11:6. 


God created man to believe. 


Unbelief implies disobedience.—Dean Alford. 


In the gospel of St. John, the word “believe’’ oc¬ 
curs 51 times. 


The Divine order is, first believe, then receive, 
then know.—Rev. W. McDonald. 


If you would believe, you must crucify the ques¬ 
tion, “How?”—Martin Luther. 


Be willing to live by believing and neither think 
nor desire to live any other way—Thos. C. Upham. 


Not to believe, is reckoned as a capital crime, for 
which sinners are condemned already.—Rev. Rich¬ 
ard Watson. 


The highest, the most sovereign reason that can 










18 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


be given for believing is, that God has commanded 
it.—Adam Clarke. 


It is the duty of men to believe the Gospel and 
to reject it, places them under guilt and the penalty 
of death.—Richard Watson. 


Sinners in hell are feeling that which they would 
ftot believe, and saints in heaven are enjoying that 
which they did believe.—Matthew Henry. 


The tendency to disbelieve and to question God’s 
Word is undoubtedly the common legacy of the de¬ 
scendants of Adam and Eve.—Philip Mauro. 


You may close your eyes and ears and harden 
your heart until you can believe or disbelieve any¬ 
thing. It has been tried.—Rev. David Nelson. 

The disbeliever submits the Bible to what he sup¬ 
poses to be reason, instead of submitting this reason 
to the revelation of God in the Bible.—Ambrose 
Serle. 


God imparts the grace or power to believe but 
man must exercise the act of believing. God never 
believes for a man any more than he repents for 
him.— A. Clarke. 


God has a right to be believed on his own word 
alone; and it is impious when we are convinced tfcat 









BELIEVING 


19 


it is his word to demand a sign or pledge for its ful¬ 
fillment.—Adam Clarke. 


Every man should believe both the promises and 
threatenings of God, for both will be accomplished. 
Some believe in neither and therefore remain un¬ 
moved by either hope or fear..—J. Edmonston. 


None is justified but he that believes; without 
faith no man is justified. And it is the only condi¬ 
tion; this alone is sufficient for justification. Ev¬ 
eryone that believes is justified, whatever else he 
has or has not.—John Wesley. 


To believe in Him is the full reception of the 
Lord’s testimony, because the burden of that testi¬ 
mony is, grace and truth and salvation by Himself. 
This faith is neither reasoning, nor knowledge, but 
a reception of divine Truth declared by One who 
came from God; and so it is far above reasoning 
and knowledge.—Dean Alford. 


“Believe you are saved, and you are saved.” Be¬ 
lieve a lie and it will come true. Is that God’s phil¬ 
osophy? What is the use of telling a person to be¬ 
lieve he is saved before he is saved? That is telling 
him to believe a lie. God has made the bestowment 
of the gift to be simultaneous with the exercise of 
faith. Believe that ye receive and ye shall have.— 
Catherine Booth. 






20 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


Appliratxmt 

The little daughter of Ethan Allen, a noted infidel, 
was dying. She turned to her father and said: 
“Papa, I am going to die. Mamma says there is a 
Christ and a hereafter, if I trust Him. You saj r 
there is no hereafter, Papa, I am dying and I must 
make my last decision now. What shall I believe?” 
The frame of the great soldier shook with emotion. 
He had just finished his great infidel work on 
“Reason the Only Oracle of Man.” But he said: 
“Daughter, you had better die in your mother’s 
faith, and not in my unbelief.”—Sel. 


(Eijrisfia doming 

Surely I come quickly. Rev. 22:20. 

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a 
shout, with the voice of the archangel, with the trump of 
God: the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are 
alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in 
the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever 
be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with 
these words. I Thess. 4:16-18. 


My reverend brethren, watch, preach the coming 
of Jesus, Watch ye, therefore, lest coming suddenly, 
He find the porter sleeping.—Rev., Hugh McNeill. 


There is nothing that will keep us more clearly 
separated from the world than the momentary ex¬ 
pectation of the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.— 
Rev. H. MacKenzie. 


The Scriptures beautifully associate the doctrine 
of holiness with Christ’s coming. A holy bride for 
her holy Bridegroom. See Col. 3:1-4; I Thess. 5:28; 
I John 3 :2-3. 


Nowhere in the Saviour’s teachings are we com¬ 
manded to watch or prepare for death. But we are 
commanded to watch and prepare for Christ’s com¬ 
ing.—Rev. W. E. Blackstone. 







22 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


Those who love his appearing, long moment by 
moment for His return, for it is the normal outcome 
of Love to long for the appearing of the loved one. 
—Rev. H. Mackenzie. 

To say that the fathers of the second and third 
centuries believe the Millennial Creed of Justin Mar¬ 
tyr, is neither more nor less than to say, they believe 
the Bible.—John Wesley. 

The pre-millennial coming of Christ and rapture 
of the saints, we believe to be the great hope for the 
church and the principal event for which believers 
wait. I Thess. 1:10.—Rev. W. E. Blackstone. * 


God has held this “blessed hope” and “glorious 
appearing” constantly before the Church, to keep 
her in her proper attitude of expectancy and long¬ 
ing, until the Bridegroom comes.—Sel. 


The Scriptures teach that Christ shall come for 
his saints and that they will meet him in the air, 
I Thess. 4:17. Also, that Christ shall come back to 
earth with his saints, Zech. 14:4-5; Jude 14, 15. 


The busiest people among the nations today, who 
are preaching the gospel of his grace, are those who 
believe in the imminent return of the Lord Jesus and 
the wonderful program which follows His coming.— 
Rev. H. Mackenzie. 







CHRIST’S COMING 


23 


Samuel Rutherford longing for the appearing of 
Christ, ‘ ‘ 0 fairest among the sons of men; why stay- 
est thou so long away? 0 heavens move fast! O 
time run, run, and hasten the marriage day! for 
love is tormented with delays.” 


Surely no doctrine in the Word of God, presents a 
deeper motive for crucifying the flesh, and for sep¬ 
aration unto God, and to work for souls, as our hope 
and joy and crown of rejoicing, than the doctrine of 
Christ’s Coming.—Rev. W. E. Blackstone. 


Jesus has revealed to us that this age is to be con¬ 
summated by His coming again, and the New Testa¬ 
ment makes it very clear that that coming will be 
in like manner as the disciples saw Him ascend into 
heaven.—Rev. John M. Maclnnis. 


To watch implies not only to believe that our Lord 
will come, but to desire that He would come, to be 
often thinking of His coming, and alwaysi looking 
for it as sure and near, and the time of it uncertain. 
—Matthew Henry. 


This is not the age of the ingathering, that age is 
to follow; this is the age of the outgathering, the 
outgathering of an elect people to be united with 
Christ in glory in that day when He shall come to 
reign, as the appointed King over the millennial 
earth.—Rev. Jas. M. Gray. 






24 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


The early fathers and the Christian Church, for 
the first two centuries of our era, found their chief 
source of hope and comfort in the second coming of 
Christ. The belief that Jesus was coming in glory 
to reign with His saints on the earth, during the 
Millennium, was almost universal with them.,—Rev. 
W. E. Blackstone. 


I cannot help but think that our Lord: is soon to 
return. There are unmistakable signs of some great 
crisis not far removed, and I like to think that they 
are but the signs of His coming. So I am looking 
for Him and longing for Him and as I look and long, 
I toil the best I know how.—Rev. J. Wilbur Chap¬ 
man. 


SlpfUrtums 

Many receive the truth of the Second Coming, but 
it is generally those who are passing through afflic¬ 
tion, or those living very near the Lord, Those who 
are enjoying the well watered plains of this world 
seem to care very little about seeing the Owner of 
the Estate. But He will come. Hallelujah! He 
will come. Yes! He is coming. The bride who 
knows the Bridegroom and is true, says He is com¬ 
ing. “Come Lord Jesus,’' Come! Come!! Come!!! 
Come!!!!—Sel. 


But what will the open vision of thy beauties ef¬ 
fect, if while thou art but faintly imagined I love 





CHRIST’S COMING 


25 


thee with such a sacred fervor! To what blessed 
heights shall my admiration rise, when I shall be¬ 
hold thee in full perfection, when I shall see thee as 
thou art exalted in majesty, and complete in beau¬ 
ty ! How shall I triumph then in thy glory, and in 
the privileges of my own being! What ineffable 
thoughts will rise to find myself united to the all- 
sufficient Divinity, by ties which the sons of men 
have no names to express! by an engagement that 
the revolution of eternal ages shall not dissolve! 
The league of nature shall be broken and the laws of 
the mingled elements be cancelled, but my relation 
to the almighty God shall stand fixed and unchange¬ 
able as his own existanee.—Mrs. Elizabeth Rowe. 




(Eharartcr 

Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. 
Matt. 5:8. 

Keep thy heart with all diligence: for out of it are the 
issues of life. Prov. 4:23. 


Character, it’s supreme quality is holiness. 

Character will be taken into eternity and there 
remain intact forever. 


Every man’s character is measured by his love for 
Jesus of Nazareth.—Rev. Chas. F. Deems. 


Actions, looks, words, steps, forms the alphabet 
by which you may spell character./—Lavator. 


Holy Character is the most precious thing in the 
universe, for it is imperishable.—Rev. G. A. Mc¬ 
Laughlin. 


Character would still be a matter of uncertainty 
if there were no trials nor temptations.—John 
Thomas. 


Reputation is what men and women say of us. 
Character is what God and angels know of us. 









CHARACTER 


27 


'Strength of character is determined by its tenac¬ 
ity to what it loves and hatred to its unlikes.—Rev. 
F. D„. Brooke. 


Character will exhibit itself in the face. The ex¬ 
ternal man will be moulded and fashioned into a 
likeness corresponding with the internal man.— 
Rev. W. E. Munsey. 


Under irreversible natural law, character tends to 
a final permanency, good or bad. In the nature of 
the case, a final permanency is attained but once.— 
Joseph Cook. 


The individual who is uncertain as to his real 
character, can have no such thing as settled peace of 
mind. The law of God is a true standard by which 
to try our characters.—Rev. C. G. Finney. 

I have generally found that a man is not much 
better than he looks, and if a man’s outward life is 
not right, I shall not feel bound to believe that his 
inward is acceptable to God.—C. H. Spurgeon. 


Some are made better by God’s gifts: yea, many 
are made worse. Give Saul a kingdom and he *vill 
tyrannise; give Nabal good cheer, and he will be 
drunk; give Judas an apostle-ship, and he will sell 
his master for money.—Adams. 


The more frequent a man does right, the stronger 








28 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


is his impulse to do right and the greater is the 
pleasure that results from doing it. The more fre¬ 
quently a man does wrong the less sensible is he to 
the pain of doing wrong. 


The life to come and the life that now is are parts 
of one another. When a man dies he takes into the 
other world his own character. He that is only 
righteous is to be “righteous still;” he that is holy 
to be “holy still.” According as a man has attained 
in this stage, so is his beginning in the next. He 
must commence there according as he has finished 
here.—Beecher. 


Man’s capacity for moral character is threefold: 
Faith in God the principle in spiritual life is lodged 
in man’s intellect; love to God the essence of spirit¬ 
ual life is lodged in man’s sensibilities, obedience to 
God the development of spiritual life is lodged in 
man’s conduct. Now this was man’s normal state. 
Faith in God was in his mind, love to God in his 
heart, and obedience to God was the characteristic 
of his conduct—and man was spiritually alive.— 
Rev. W. E. Munsey. 





QUrristianfi 

Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. Acts 26:28. 

Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be asham¬ 
ed: but let him glorify God on this behalf. Peter 4:16. 


A selfish Christian is as inconsistent and impos¬ 
sible as a selfish Christ.—Rev. A.. B. Simpson. 


A Christian is the highest character which any hu¬ 
man being can bear upon earth.—Adam Clarke. 


The Christian’s religion is an exclusive religion, 
“Thou shalt have no other gods before (or beside) 
me.” 


As the wife give up her own name and assumes 
that of her husband, so His church assumes the name 
Christian. 


To make a man a Christian in head and notion 
only, would be drawing a mere portrait, which has 
neither life nor action.—Ambrose Serle. 


Christianity is a mystery. It is a redemptive and 
compensatory scheme bursting from the mind of 
God as His masterpiece.—Rev. W. E. Munsey. 









30 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


There are four names for Christians that bespeak 
the four cardinal graces; Saints, for their holiness; 
Believers, for their faith; Brethren, for their love: 
Disciples, for their knowledge. 


But Christ, as perfect God, shows us what God is ; 
as perfect man, shows us what man ought to be; 
as at once perfect God and perfect man, shows us 
how God and man may be at one.—Julius C., Hare. 


This and this alone, is Christianity: a universal 
holiness in every part of life, a heavenly wisdom in 
all our actions, not conforming to the spirit and tem¬ 
per of the world, but turning all worldly enjoyments 
into means of piety and devotion to God.—William 
Law. 


The Christian doth not value earthly enjoyments, 
or himself by them; and if Satan were to think to 
hurt a saint by touching his external advantages, 
this were as if one should try to hurt a man by beat¬ 
ing his clothes, when once he had put them off.— 
Gurnall. 


The motives to be religious are not found in this 
world, or the things of this world, and there is not a 
passage of Scripture which warrants such a doctrine. 
This is a state of trial; and we have the promise that 
all things do work for our good if we are Christians. 
—Rev, W. E. Munsey. 






CHRISTIANS 


31 


The early Church took their denomination not 
from the name of his person, Jesus, but of his office, 
Christ—anointed. Thus they owned their depend- 
ance upon Christ, and their receivings from him; 
not only that they believed in him who is the anoint¬ 
ed but that through him they themselves had the 
anointing. I John 2:20-27.—Matthew Henry. 

There is ever a fresh fragrance flowing from the 
rose of Sharon, increasing in sweetness; so is it with 
the Christian, whose heart is filled with love of 
Christ because he is of one spirit with Christ. There 
is a holy atmosphere as it were about him. Wherev¬ 
er he goes he is a blessing.—Salter. 


Faith in God is an element of spiritual life:'“He 
that believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting 
life.” Love to God is an element in spiritual life: 
“the crown of life, w r hich the Lord hath promised to 
them that love him.” Obedience to God is an ele¬ 
ment of spiritual life: “If a man keep my saying, 
he shall never see death.”—Rev. W. E. Munsey. 


A Christian should be both a loadstone and a dia¬ 
mond: a loadstone in drawing others to Christ; a 
diamond, casting a sparkling luster of holiness in his 
life. Oh let us be so just in our dealings, so true 
in our promises, so devout in our worship, so un- 
blameable in our lives, that we may be the walking 
pictures of Christ. Thus as Christ was made in our 





32 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


likeness, let us labor to be made in His likeness.— 
Watson. 


Christians are bound to show by their conduct 
that they are actually satisfied with the enjoyments 
of religion, without the pomps and vanities of the 
world; that the joys of religion and communion with 
God keep them above the world. They are to mani¬ 
fest that this world is not their home. What do the 
world think when they see a professor of religion 
just as much afraid to die as an infidel.—Chas. Fin¬ 
ney. 


Urflnrltmts 

Are we Christians ? Then we ought to think, and 
speak, and act in everything as; becomes Christians, 
and to do nothing to the reproach of that worthy 
name by which we are called; that it may not be 
said to us which Alexander said to a soldier of his 
own name that was noted for a coward, “Either 
change thy name or mend thy manners.”—Matthew 
Henry. 


What an exalted creature is the Christian indeed! 
What privileges is he born to share! What honor 
and dignity is he made to enjoy! That such a ves¬ 
sel, and such a vessel of clay, as he is, should be 
anointed with the holy oil of God’s most gracious 
spirit, and thereby be consecrated and “set apart 
for the Master’s use” is an astonishing mercy, and 





CHRISTIANS 


33 


points out for him a rank of exaltation and blessed¬ 
ness which all the ability of man can neither com¬ 
prehend nor express.—Ambrose Serle. 


(ftomiWBum 

Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye 
: shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Matt. 18:3. 

Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may 
be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from 
the presence of the Lord. Acts 3:19. 


Conversion, in short lies in the thorough change 
both of the heart and life.—Joseph Alleine. 


There is but one of two ways for every wicked 
man, either conversion or damnation.—Richard Bax¬ 
ter. 


Conversion means turning to God through Christ, 
deeply deploring your transgressions and believing 
on his name.—Adam Clarke. 


The Scriptures ascribe the conversion of a sinner 
to four different agencies,—to men, to God, to the 
truth, and to the sinner himself.—C. G. Finney. 


In conversion, God so changes the soil, that from 
the ground itself, from its own vitality, there spon¬ 
taneously starts up the fir tree and the myrtle.— 
Spurgeon. 







CONVERSION 


35 


As the fire mounts upward, and the needle that is 
touched with the loadstone turns to the north: so 
the converted soul is inclined to God.—Richard Bax¬ 
ter. 


No surer evidence of an unconverted state than to 
have the things of the world uppermost in our aim, 
love, and estimation. See John 2:15, James 4:4.— 
Joseph Alleine. 


Conversion means face about and both face and 
steps directed the contrary way to what they have 
been; a returning to the Lord God from whom one 
has revolted.—Matthew Henry. 


There is a sense in which the difficulties of conver¬ 
sion increase with years, every year adding strength 
to our sinful habits: deepening as the constant flow T 
of water, the channels in which they run.—Guthrie. 


Conversion is not as some suppose, a violent open¬ 
ing of the heart by grace, in which will, reason, and 
judgment are all ignored or crushed. In conversion, 
the Lord who made the human heart deals with it 
according to its nature and constitution.—Rev. C. 
H. Spurgeon. 


The sound convert takes a whole Christ, and takes 
him for all intents and purposes, without exceptions, 
without limitations, without reserves. He is willing 
to have Christ upon His own terms, upon any terms. 







36 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


He is willing to have the dominion of Christ as well 
as deliverance by Christ.—Joseph Alleine. 

Conversion, in its strict sense, describes the human, 
part of that change called regeneration, by which 
the sinner is brought into the kingdom of heaven. 
In a broader sense, conversion is that change in the 
thoughts, desires, dispositions, and life of the sinner 
which is brought about when he is renewed by the 
Holy Ghost as a result of his turning from sin to 
God, through faith in Jesus Christ.—Rev. Amos 
Binney. 


(ttmtrlamon 

Wilt thou be converted, or wilt thou not? If not 
thou art a lost man. If thou know thou must, why 
not today rather than tomorrow ? What reason have 
you for any longer delay? Is a state of sin or a 
state of grace the better? Is God so bad a Master, 
and heaven so bad a place that you will not turn?— 
Baxter. 


A spurious conversion is one where the speaker is 
unwisely urged and persuaded to believe he is saved 
while there may yet be rebellion or unrepented sins 
in his heart and life. God and the seeker knows 
when His requirements have been met, it is then gen¬ 
erally quite easy and natural to believe. Reader, 
has your conversion made you a 4 ‘new creature” in 
Christ? If not, it is spurious and will fail you at 
last. 





CONVERSION 


37 


An English chaplain, who labored with many con¬ 
victs, and while the death-bell was tolling accompan¬ 
ied them to the scaffold, also prepared not a few for 
execution, who were unexpectedly reprieved. Of 
these a large number seemed to be converted. Their 
repentance seemed sincere and had they suffered the 
penalty of their crimes, he and others would have 
believed that, whom earth rejected, Heaven in its 
mercy had received for the sake of Christ’s right¬ 
eousness : acquitting at its bar those whom man had 
condemned at his. Alas, with hardly an exception, 
all who seemed to be converted within the prison, 
under the shadow of the gallows, turned back like 
the dog to his vomit and the sow that is washed to 
her wallowing in the mire. A melancholy fact! What 
a dark suspicion does it cast on late conversions? 
The Bible, which ranges over a period of four thou¬ 
sand years, records but one instance of death-bed 
conversion—one that none may despair, and but one 
that none may presume.—Guthrie. 



(Emtaronrr 

The testimony of our conscience. II Cor. 1:12. 

And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a con¬ 
science void of offense toward God and toward man. Acts 
24:16. 


Every human being has a conscience. 


A brave man hazards life but not his conscience.— 
Schiller. 


Conscience is strengthened by use, it is impaired 
by disuse. 


There can be no happiness without a good con¬ 
science.—Rev. A. L. Whitcomb. 


Conscience says, “do right,’’ knowledge deter¬ 
mines what right is.—Rev. A. L. WTiitcomb. 


Conscience is that faculty by which we discern 
the moral quality of action.—Wayland. 


Man’s first duty is not to follow his conscience, 
but to enlighten his conscience.—Bishop Gore. 









CONSCIENCE 


39 


If the warning- conscience has been disregarded, 
the gnawing conscience is its avenger.—Dean Far¬ 
rar. 


Human tribunals, legislators and juries can be 
corrupted, but conscience, God’s viceregent in man, 
never can.—Rev. Geo. B. Kulp. 


The flight of time cannot obscure the testimony 
of conscience, years may roll by but conscience nev¬ 
er forgets./—Rev. Geo. B. Kulp. 


For though the will to resist sin may die out of a 
man, the conscience to condemn it never can. This 
remains eternally.—Rev. G. T. Shedd. 


Conscience in the soul is the root of all true cour¬ 
age. If a man would be brave, let him learn to obey 
his conscience.—James F. Clarke. 


Conscience, true as the needle to the pole, points 
steadily to the pole-star of God’s eternal justice re¬ 
minding the soul of the fearful realities of the life to 
come.—Rev. E,. H. Gillett. 


The word conscience is compounded of con, “to¬ 
gether or with,” and scio, “I know;” because it 
knows or combines with, by or together with, the 
Spirit of God.—Adam Clarke. 


O conscience, do thy duty: in the name of the liv- 


♦ 









40 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


ing God, I command thee to discharge thy office. 
Lay hold upon this sinner, fall upon him, arrest him, 
apprehend him, undeceive him.—Joseph Alleine. 

Little compromises open the door to the big ones. 
Once let the will of man tamper with the Word of 
God, then blunted conscience will be increasingly 
unable to detect the line between the true and the 
false.—Fox. 


How necessary to hear the voice of conscience in 
time! For here it may be the instrument of salva¬ 
tion ; but if not heard in this world, it must be heard 
in the next; and there, in association with the un¬ 
quenchable fire, it will be the never-dying worm.— 
Adam Clarke. 


The prime function of conscience is, to tell us 
which of two ways of acting is right and which 
wrong., The conscience requires to be enlightened. 
Saul of Tarsus thought that he ought to do many 
things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. 
The great educator of conscience is the Word of God, 
—Jas. Stalker, D. D. 


lExantplps 

Why did Belshazzar turn pale and his knees trem¬ 
ble at the handwriting on the wall? Because con¬ 
science told him it was true. 


When Paul the prisoner, stood before Felix and 







CONSCIENCE 


41 


reasoned of righteousness, temperance and judg¬ 
ment to come; Felix trembled like a criminal at his 
own tribunal. Self condemned by conscience. 


Webster murdered Parkman, was taken to jail, 
and confined in a cell. The next morning he begged 
of the jailer to take him out and transfer him to 
some other quarters. When asked the reason why, 
he replied, that “All night long the man in the ad¬ 
joining cell kept crying, “Thou art a bloody man! 
Thou art a bloody man!” But there were no oc¬ 
cupants of the cells adjoining. He had heard the 
thunder tones of conscience and could not sleep.— 
Sel. 


Sin ICrrp A Gfatwrirar? 

1. Avoid every sin. 

2. Consult duty not the event. 

3. Keep under the eye of God. 

4. Be nothing in your own eyes. 

5. Keep watch on your heart an,d life. 

6. Do nothing which you cannot pray over. 

7. Live with your whole life in view. 

8. Take the advice you would give to others. 

9. Venture on no sin because grace is possible. 

10. Act as you would believe the Lord would act 

in your place.—Sel. 




Contcntnuntt 

But godliness with contentment is great gain. I Tim 6:6. 
I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be 
content. Phil. 4:11. 


Joyfully and thankfully patient, nothing less is 
Christian content.—John Wesley. 


Nature is content with a little and that which is 
most natural, grace with less, but lust with nothing. 
—Matthew Henry. 


No man should be content with himself that he 
bareley does well, but he should perform everything 
in the best manner he is able—Steele. 


Contentment is a pearl of great price, and who¬ 
ever procures it at the expense of ten thousand de¬ 
sires makes a wise and happy purchase.—Balguy. 


“I have learned in whatsoever state I am, there¬ 
with to be content.” Paul did not get this at the 
feet of Gamaliel, but at the feet of Christ.-—Matthew 
Henry. 


Thieves may plunder us of our money but not of 








CONTENTMENT 


43 


this pearl of contentment, unless we are willing to 
part with it, for it is locked up in the cabinet of the 
heart.i—Sel. 


True contentment consists not in bringing our 
condition to our minds, but our minds to our condi¬ 
tion: the former is often both unreasonable and im¬ 
possible; the latter is both possible and reasonable. 
—Aphra Behn. 


Contentment is satisfaction of mind arising from 
acquiscence in the providential arrangements of 
God. It is not stoicism, or a professed indifference to 
enjoyment or pain, bliss or sorrow, adversity or 
prosperity.—Jabus Burns. 


Be content: and the best way to be contented is 
believe that condition best which God carves out for 
you by His providence. If God had seen it fit for 
us to have more, we would have had it.—Watson. 


'Souls are wrecked 1 by the turbulent insurrections 
of discontent with God’s appointment; souls are 
saved by the faith which knows whom it has believ¬ 
ed, and is confident that He will keep that which is 
committed to Him against that day—Carson Liddon. 


It is not outward affliction that can make the life 
of a Christian sad: a contented mind will sail above 

these waters; but when there is a leak of discontent 

7 







44 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


open, and trouble gets into the heart, then it is dis¬ 
quieted and sinks.—Watson. 

We must bring our minds to our present condi¬ 
tion, and this is the sure way to contentment; and 
those who cannot do it would not be contented 
though God should raise their condition to their 
minds, for the mind would rise with the condition.— 
Matthew Henry. 


The lovely bird of paradise, Christian content¬ 
ment can sit and sing in the cage of affliction and 
confinement, or fly at liberty through the vast ex¬ 
panse, with almost equal satisfaction; while, “even 
so, Father for so it seemeth good in Thy sight,” is 
the chief note in the celestial song.—Bond. 


Appltrattmt 

One observes concerning manna, when the people 
were contented with the allowance that God gave 
them, then it was very good; but when they would 
not be content with God’s allowance, but would be 
gathering more, then, says the text, “there were 
w T orms in it.” So, when we are content with our 
conditions and that which God disposeth of us to be 
in, there’s a blessing in it; but if we must needs be 
reaching out for more than God hath allowed, or to 
keep it longer than God would have us to have it, 
then there will be worms in it, a canker to eat it, a 
moth to fret it,—nothing at all that is good.—Bur¬ 
roughs. 





CONTENTMENT 


45 


The saintly Madame Guyon, because of her holy 
life and teachings was imprisoned 14 years. While 
in prison she wrote the following poem: 

A little bird I am, 

Shut from the fields of air; 

And in my cage I sit and sing 
To Him who placed me there; 

Well pleased a prisoner to be, 

Because, my God, it pleases Thee. 

Naught have I else to do; 

I sing the whole day long; 

And He whom most I love to please, 

Doth listen to my song; 

He caught and bound my wondering wing, 

But still He bends to hear me sing. 

Oh! it is good to soar, 

These bolts and bars above, 

To Him whose purpose I adore 
Whose Providence I love; 

And in Thy mighty Will to find 
The joy, the freedom of the mind. 


©mirage 

And be ye of good courage. Num. 13:20. 

Be strong and of good courage, dread not nor be dismayed. 
I Chron. 22:13. 

True courage is always unassuming.—Robert 
Hall. 


I would have you regard courage as nearly the 
supreme quality of character.—T. T. Munger. 


Courage is the result of an unshaken confidence in 
God—it is grounded upon faith in God.—Rev. W. E. 
Munsey. 


In the first chapter of Joshua, four times God 
said to Joshua, “Be strong and of a good courage” 
or very courageous. 


I have found nothing yet which requires more 
courage and independence than to rise even a little 
but decidedly above the par of the religious world 
around us.—Dr. J. W. Alexander. 


Moral courage is a very precious and heroic qual¬ 
ity of the soul. It means patience under wrong and 
trial, forbearance, tenderness towards one’s fellows, 








COURAGE 


47 


self control under provocation, moderation in pros¬ 
perity, and calmness in adversity.—W. H. D. Adams. 


Moral courage is the fortitude which enables its 
possessor to do right in the face of ridicule and 
scorn and opposition. Many a man has stood un¬ 
moved in the midst of fearful physical peril, who 
has shrank from the world’s laugh with confusion 
and dismay.—Jabus Bums, M. D. 


There is a difference between bravery and cour¬ 
age. Bravery is constitutional, courage is acquired. 
Bravery being constitutional, does not entitle the 
possessor to merit, or reward. Courage being an 
acquirement which implies voluntary action on the 
part of the agent therefore does entitle the posses¬ 
sor to both merit and reward.—Rev. W. E. Munsey. 


When we are in the way of our duty we have reas¬ 
on to be strong and very courageous; and it will 
help very much to animate and embolden us if we 
keep our eye upon the divine warrant and hear God 
saying, “Have not I commanded Thee?” I will 
there help thee, succor thee, accept thee, reward 
thee.—Matthew Henry. 


To go through with a difficult and dangerous un¬ 
dertaking, a man wants more than a brute courage. 
He wants spiritual courage—the courage which 
comes by faith. He needs to have faith in what he 
is doing; to be certain that he is doing his duty, to 







48 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


be certain that he is in the right. Certain that right 
will conquer, certain that God will make it conquer 
by him or some one else, for God is with him. In a 
word to have true courage, a man needs faith in 
God.—Kingsley. 


Examples 

John Huss marched to the stake as if his heart 
was glad. A Roman historian who witnessed the 
scene, said that he looked like a man going to a 
grand banquet,—and truly he was. 


While John Bunyan was in Bedford jail, his little 
blind girl came in and in the presence of the jailor 
said, “Papa we are hungry for bread at home,” and 
in answer to the entreaty of the jailor, who wanted 
him to cease preaching he said, “I’ll stay in here 
until moss grows on my face like eyebrows rather 
than to cease preaching.” 


“Make me a coliseum,” said the emperor to his 
Greek architect. “You shall have everything in the 
way of means, but make me the best in the world. 
When it is completed we shall have a gala day and 
crown you.” The coliseum was built. Yonder on 
his emerald throne sat the emperor and by his side 
the Greek architect. The emperor arose and said 
to the eighty thousand people before him, “We have 
come to a great day: we have the finest building in 
the world: we have met to do honor to the Greek 
architect.” Then stooping down, he cried, “Let in 





COURAGE 


49 


the lions, bring in the Christians.” Then from his 
seat arose the Greek and said with a voice that pen¬ 
etrated every part of the building, “Sir, I too, am a 
Christian.” The maddened multitude hurled him 
over on the pavement below, where he lay crushed, 
bleeding and dying. That was sublime courage.— 
George B. Kulp. 




Srattj 

And as it is appointed unto men once to die. Heb. 9:27. 

Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end 
be like his. Num. 23:10. 


Give me no guess for a dying pillow.—Joseph 
Cook. 


When death passes on the body, the time of mak¬ 
ing ready for another world is ended.—Rev. A. Mc¬ 
Kenzie. 


Death does not destroy the inhabitant. It only 
takes down the house in which he lives.—Rev. R. 
Rock. 


Death often sends no summons before him; but 
floats unseen on the breeze, and has aimed his shaft 
before his approach is perceived.—Rev. A. P. Pea¬ 
body. 


Art thou loath to see thy labors finished, and to 
receive the end of thy faith and sufferings, and to 
obtain the thing for which thou livest?—Baxter. 


Death is half disarmed when the pleasures and in- 








DEATH 


51 


terests of the flesh are first denied; for the leaving 
of fleshly contents and pleasures is much of the 
reason of man’s unwillingness to die.i—Baxter. 


The Christian fears not death; for he knows that 
it will be his happiest day, and his bridge from woe 
to glory. Though it be the wicked man’s shipwreck, 
it is the good man’s putting into harbor.—Fulltham. 


0 the calmness, the sweetness of dying saints! 
They would not exchange their situation with the 
proudest monarch on earth. The world has nothing 
to court their stay. Heaven has everything that 
their souls desire.—Rev. J. Edmondson. 


Christians are never so well situated to glorify 
God as in their dying hours. Then they can dis¬ 
play the tenderness of His care, the truth of His 
promises, the supports of His everlasting love, as 
they could in no other circumstances.—Macmillan. 


There are many who desire to die the death of the 
righteous, but do not endeavor to live the life of 
the righteous. Gladly would they have their end 
like theirs, but not their way. They would be saints 
in Heaven, but not saints on earth.—Matthew Hen- 

i 

ry. 


Friend, how will it be when you come to the end 
where the world will have shriveled to its true little¬ 
ness and eternity looms up to its true bigness; when 







52 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


the things which are seen are really found to be 
temporal and the things which are unseen eternal f 
—Jas. H. McConey. 


Death closes our eyes upon this world, but opens 
them upon another. It puts an end to our time, but 
introduces us into eternity. It separates us from 
men, but it brings us face to face with God. It 
closes the term of our trial for life, and fixes our 
destiny unchangeably and forever.—Rev. Z. Meek. 


“Dear Lord,” we seem to say, “keep us down here 
where we have to suffer, instead of letting us go up 
where we might live and reign and rejoice.” I am 
amazed at mystelf and at yourself for this infatua¬ 
tion under which we all rest. Men, you would sup¬ 
pose, would get frightened at having to stay in this 
world instead of getting frightened at having to go 
toward heaven.—Talmage. 


The Christian’s Death. 

Eva Greening cried, “I see angels clapping their 
hands around the great white throne.” 

John Walsh said, “He is come! My beloved is 
mine and I am his forever.” 

“Almost well and nearly at home,” said the dying 
Baxter, when asked how he was by a friend. 

When the doctor told Francis R. Havergal that he 
thought she was going, she replied, “Beautiful, too 
good to be true! Splendid to be so near the gate of 
heaven.” 





DEATH 


53 


The Sinner’s Death. 

The atheist Hobb’s last words were: “I am tak¬ 
ing a fearful leap into the dark.” 

Francis Newport cried out, “0! the insufferable 
pangs of hell and damnation! 0, Eternity! forever 

and forever!” 

Voltaire was a noted, wealthy infidel, yet his last 
words were, “I am abandoned by God and man; I 
shall die and go to hell.” 

The dying words of Altimont, “0! thou blasphem¬ 
ed, yet most indulgent Lord God, Hell is a refuge, 
if it hide me from thy frown.” 


HrflrrttmtiS 

I have seen the reapers in the harvest-field sit 
down on the*falien sheaves of corn to wipe the sweat 
from their sun-browned brows, and pausing from 
work, rest awhile; but who ever saw this grim reap¬ 
er sitting on the tombstones or green hillocks of the 
graves, to rest himself and repair his strength? Of 
Death it may be said as of God “He sleeps not neith¬ 
er is weary.”—Guthrie. 


To the Christian,—“Look up to the blessed souls 
with Christ, and think that you are but to pass that 
way, which all those souls have gone before you, and 
to go from a world of enmity and vanity, to the 
company of all those blessed spirits.” And is not 
their blessed state more desirable than such a vex¬ 
atious life as this? Join yourself daily to that celes- 




54 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


tial society: suppose yourself a spectator of their or¬ 
der, purity and glory and an auditor of their har¬ 
monious praises of Jehovah. Like one that stands 
by the river side, and seeth his friends on the farther 
side, in a place of pleasure, while his enemies are 
pursuing him at the back, how gladly would he be 
over with them! And it will embolden him to ven¬ 
ture on the passage, which all they have safely pass¬ 
ed before him. Thus death will be to us as the Red 
Sea to pass us safely to the land of promise while 
our pursuers are there overthrown and perish.— 
Baxter. 


To the sinner,—“They hated me without a cause / 9 
says the Son of God. Lost spirits are not forced in¬ 
to a sphere that is unsuited to them. There is no 
other abode in the universe which they would prefer 
to that to which they are assigned, because the only 
other abode is heaven. The meekness, lowliness, 
sweet submission to God, and love of him, that char¬ 
acterize heaven, are more hateful to Lucifer and his 
angels, than even the sufferings of hell. The wicked 
would be no happier in heaven than in hell. The 
burden and anguish of a guilty conscience, says 
South, is so insupportable, that some have, “done 
violence to their own lives, and so fled to hell as a 
sanctuary, and chose damnation as a release.—Wil¬ 
liam G. T. Shedd. 



jFatflj 

Have faith in God. Mark 11:22. 

But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he 
that eometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a 
rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Heb. 11:6. 


Faith and hope precede all great victories. 


We serve God according to the measure of our 
faith.—John Wesley. 

Faith first influences our affections then our ac¬ 
tions.—Matthew Henry. 


Faith is always preceded by a revelation of God, 
through his word or by his Spirit. 


Of all graces, faith honors Christ most, therefore 
of all graces, Christ honors faith most.—Matthew 
Henry. 


Faith disregards apparent impossibilities, when 
there is a command and a promise of God.—A. 
Clarke. 


The formative principle in faith is that of confi- 









56 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


dence and trust, rather than intellectual belief.— 
Julius C. Hare. 


In the Greek word which we render “faith,” the 
leading idea is that of confidence, of reliance, of 
trust. 


Faith is to believe what we do not see and the 
reward of this faith is to see what we believe.—Au¬ 
gustine. 


To the heart of Faith, hopes are as actual as real¬ 
ities, and heavenly promises are more precious than 
earthly possessions.—F. W. Farrar. 


You will only embarrass and perplex yourself if 
you try to discover the process of faith. Your saf¬ 
est course is to make sure that you are performing 
the act of faith.—Ibed. 


The more frequently we see the less we feel the 
power of an object: while the more frequently we 
dwell upon an object by faith the more we feel its 
power.—Jas. B. Walker. 


Faith in the commands of God, will lead us to 
obedience. Faith in the promises, will afford 11 s en¬ 
couragement. Faith in the threatenings will lead 
us to a sacred dread of offending.—J. Edmondson. 


Faith is always in exercise. Other graces have 









FAITH 


57 


their times and seasons, but we live by faith. There 
is never a moment in our waking hours that does 
not call for its exercise.—Sel. 


In the history of the Jews, we see what a glorious 
thing faith is, also in them do we see what wretched¬ 
ness and shame is man’s portion when losing his 
hold of faith, he falls into the formless chaos of un¬ 
belief.—Rev. Julius C. Hare. 


Faith must always have evidence. A man cannot 
believe a thing unless he sees something which he 
supposes to be evidence. He is under no obligation 
to believe, and has no right to believe a thing will be 
done unless he has evidence. It is the height of 
fanaticism to believe without evidence.—Rev Chas. 
(t. Finney. 


Faith is that power or faculty in man, which gives 
substance and reality to such things as are not 
objects of sight, and which fills him with a lively as¬ 
surance of the things for which he hopes. He who 
believes in the Scriptural sense, must believe not 
merely with his mind but with his heart, and soul 
and strength.—Julius C. Hare. 


Distinctions in faith, it will be remembered, relate 
to the mode of its exercise and not to its nature. As 
to its nature it is always the same. The faith by 
which we are justified and sanctified and glorified 
is one. The difference is in the thing which occu- 






58 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


pies the attention or upon which faith is fixed.— 
Rev. R. W. Hawkins. 


Faith knows what it believes, and in the light of 
its intuition, it views the sacred truth in the midst 
of the agitations and turmoil of this world's life. 
The very essence of faith is, that it is firm, confident 
certitude respecting what is not seen. Faith finally 
is the profoundest act of the will, the profoundest 
act of obedience and devotion.—Martensen. 


The act of faith includes perception and volition: 
the effect of faith is a sensation. The exercise of 
faith is an operation of the intellect, the result of 
faith is a sensation of the soul—an indescribable 
feeling of relief; as though the heart had been sud¬ 
denly released from some oppressive weight or care 
and the body delivered from a heavy burden; which 
finds fitting expression in repeated signs of deliver¬ 
ance that pervade our whole being with a sense of 
rest.—Rev. R. W. Hawkins. 


Appltratimt 

When a miner looks at the rope that is to low T er 
him into the deep mine, he may coolly say, “I have 
faith in that rope as well made and strong. M But 
when he lays hold of it and swings down by it into 
the tremendous chasm then he is believing on the 
rope. Then he is trusting himself to the rope. It 
it not a mere opinion,—it is an act. The miner lets 





FAITH 


59 


go of everything else, and bears his whole weight 
on those well-braided strands of hemp. Now that 
is faith.—T. L. Cuyler. 


Senses for things of sense. Reason for things of 
thought and mind, but faith for things of God. 
Faith sees the invisible, touches the intangible, 
hears the inaudible. The unseen is as real as the 
seen; the inaudible as the audible; the intangible as 
the things we handle. Nay, far more so.. All the 
seen comes out of the unseen and returns thither. 
Into this realm comes faith and is at home. It 
knows God. It endures hardship, torture, martyr¬ 
dom, since it sees him who is invisible. Faith is 
earlier and more universal than either sense or 
reason, and hence is the only possible foundation for 
the universal religion of Jesus Christ.—Bishop H. 
W. Warren. 


Examples 

(Hebrews 11th chapter.) 

By faith the Apostles rejoiced that they were 
counted worthy to suffer for His name. 

By faith that noble army of martyrs, mounted 
their fiery chariots or gave their bodies to feed the 
lions. 

By faith Ridley looked forward with joy to the 




60 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


fire that awaited him, and bade his sister, come to 
his marriage. 

By faith Rogers, the protomartyr of our Reforma¬ 
tion, when his wife and eleven children met him on 
his way to the stake, and an offer of life and pardon 
was brought to him in their sight, if so be he would 
recant, walked on with a stout heart, and washed 
his hands in the flames while he was burning, re¬ 
joicing in the fiery baptism whereby he gave up his 
soul to God. 


g>rnptur* Reffmnrfls 

Faith, 

The power of, Matt. 21:21; Mark 9:23; Acts 3:16. 
The fruits of, Matt. 15:28; Eph. 3:17, 19; Gal. 3: 
14. 

Justified by, Rom. 3:28; 5:1; Gal. 2:16. 
Sanctified by, Acts 15:9; 26:18; I Thess. 5:23, 24. 
Worketh by love, Gal. 5:6; Eph. 3:17; I Thess. 1: 
3. 

Exhortations to continue, Phil. 1:27; Col. 2:7; I 
Tim. 1:19; Heb. 10:23. 



Suirgiimteaa 

Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them, for they know not 
what they do. Luke 23:34. 

For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly 
Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men 
their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your tres¬ 
passes. Matt. 6:14-15. 


Those who from the heart have learned how to 
forgive an enemy, have learned a lesson from God’s 
school.—L. M. Zimmerman. 


It is not because we forgive that we ought to be 
forgiven: but because we are forgiven that we ought 
to forgive.—E. B. 


He that cannot forgive others breaks the bridge 
over which he must pass himself; for every man 
has need to be forgiven.—Lord Herbert. 


In forgiveness, we feel, benevolently toward the 
wrong-doer, without at all committing ourselves 
in favor of his conduct or character.—Sel. 


“Seventy times seven” is the Divine Law for 
forgiveness, and yet some are unwilling to forgive 







62 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 



even one time, and that for a small offense.—Rev. 
L. M. Zimmerman. 


A deaf and dumb person being asked, “What is 
forgiveness,” took a pencil and wrote thus: “It is 
the odor which flowers yield when trampled upon.” 


The word “forgive” signifies to set at liberty, 
to loose, to free from obligation, to emancipate, and 
the Lord Christ alone is the meritorious cause of 
forgiveness,—Loraine. 


What reason is it that God should forgive us the 
talents w r e are indebted to Him, if w*e forgive not 
our brethren the pence they are indebted to us.— 
Matthew Henry. 


If you forgive not those that have injured you 
that is a bad sign you have not the other requisite 
conditions, but are altogether unqualified for par¬ 
don.—Matthew Henry. 


It can be no great difficulty to forgive, especially 
when we consider that in many respects we have 
failed so much, in certain duties which we owe to 
others, as they have done ijn those which they 
owed us.—Adam Clarke. 


Forgiveness to be complete implies: 1. The remis¬ 
sion of the right to retaliate when safe and proper. 
2. The dismissal of the resentful feelings which 








FORGIVENESS 


63 


injury may have excited. 3. The revival of those 
feelings of good-will which it becomes us habitu¬ 
ally to cherish.—W. Fleming. 


For just in proportion as your own sin against 
God appears great, so will the offense of others 
against yourself appear small. It is not that our 
forgiveness of spirit wins forgiveness of God but 
that our unforgiveness cannot accept forgiveness 
of God.—Dods. 


Is forgiveness a perfunctory act a word uttered 
by a voice; or is it an expression of the heart and 
soul from within? When God forgives a man, is 
it simply a form, or does God forgive and then 
thereafter act as if there never had been an occasion 
for forgiveness?—Ilev. L. M. Zimmerman. 


Examples 

“What can Jesus Christ do for you now?” said 
an inhuman slave-master, when in the act of apply¬ 
ing the lacerating whip to an already half murdered 
slave. “Him teach me to forgive you, massa.” was 
the noble reply.— 


Then said Jesus, “Father, forgive them: for they 
know not what they do,” while they were actually 
nailing Him to the cross. He seems to feel the in¬ 
jury they did to their souls, more than the wounds 
which they gave him and, as it were, to forget His 







64 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


own anguish, out of a concern for their salvation. 
In the midst of the agonies which lie suffered, He 
poured out a compassionate prayer for those that 
were imbruing their hands in His blood.—Rev. Jos¬ 
eph Benson. 

Sir Thomas More, Lord Chancellor of England, 
after having been tried at Westminster and con¬ 
demned to death without any just or reasonable 
cause, concluded his speech to his judges thus: 
“More have I not to say, my lords, but that as St. 
Paul held the clothes of those who stoned Stephen 
to death and as they are both now saints in heaven, 
and shall continue there, friends forever; so I verily 
trust, and shall, therefore most heartily pray, that 
though your lordships have now here on earth been 
judges to my condemnation, we may nevertheless 
hereafter cheerfully meet in heaven in everlasting 
salvation.—Myer’s Lectures on Great Men. 


SfoflprtUma 

Reader, have you “from your heart” forgiven all 
men their trespasses against you as you pray to be 
forgiven? An unforgiving spirit can profit you 
nothing here nor in eternity, but will close your way 
to the “tree of life,” and shut the gates of heaven 
against you forever. 


God’s forgiveness leads to fear and why? What 
is that strange and potent element in Divine for- 





FORGIVENESS ... 65 

) 

giveness that makes the forgiven fear—making 
me more afraid to sin beside the Cross of Calvary, 
with its quiet pale, dead bleeding burden than if 
I stood at the foot of Sinai amid the thunders, 
lightnings and trumpet peals that made Moses ex¬ 
ceedingly fear and quake.—John Bunyan. 


(Ikarp 

My grace is sufficient for thee. II Cor. 12:9. 

That in the ages to come tie might show tho exceeding 
riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ 
Jesus. Eph. 2:7. 

Grace begins where natural means can go no 
farther.—Rev. John A. Bengel. 


Saving grace is the free undeserved goodness and 
favor of God.—Matthew Henry. 


He is and will be the **Spirit of Grace to his 
people in everlasting glory.—Ambrose Serle. 


If grace be grace in any w'ay, it must be grace, 
or gratuitous, in every way.—Augustine. 


Grace signifies two things. (1) The good will of 
God towards us. (2) Tin? good work of God in us. 
—Matthew Henry. 


Grace is a supernatural gift of God to man, 
given for supernatural purposes, and bestowed free¬ 
ly for the sake of Christ’s merits.—J. H. Blunt. 

All the work of grace in the soul is to prepare 
it for glory. It is an agency of Divine love and 








GRACE 


6T 


none but a Divine hand can perform it.—Ambrose 
Serle. 


There is nothing that man can do to merit the 
saving grace of God; but as a rational responsible 
being some things he must do to obtain it, hence 
the error of Antinomianism. 


Grace, as signifying the free mercy, or unmerit¬ 
ed goodness of God, without any respect to human 
worthiness, confers the glorious gift of salvation.— 
Joseph Benson. 


Grace is not a principle given to man to render 
him independent, but to increase his dependence 
by increasing his communion with God. He cannot 
live to God without God.—Ambrose Serle. 


We have not earned a stock of grace, but it is 
given out for use as we want it. As for those who 
think they earn it, God is able to make them often 
feel very empty.—Rev. John A. Bengel. 


“Let us come boldly to the throne of grace.” 
God has established a throne of grace whereon He 
sits, and unto which He invites His people to ap¬ 
proach with a becoming confidence.—Bishop 
Hopkins. 


True grace changes the very nature of a man. Mor¬ 
al virtue doth only restrain or chain up the outward 









68 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


man, it doth not change the whole man. A lion 
in a cage is a lion still; he is restrained, but not 
changed,—Brooks. 

God’s covenant of grace has in it the recompence 
of singular service, and the fountain and founda¬ 
tion of all distinguishing favors'; we need desire 
no more, either to make up our losses for God, or 
to make up a happiness for us in God than to have 
his covenant established with us.—Matthew Henry. 


The best helps to grow in grace are the ill usage, 
affronts, and losses which befall us. We should 
receive them with all thankfulness as preferable to 
all others. One of the greatest evidences of God’s 
love to those who love him, is to send afflictions 
with grace to bear them.—John Wesley. 


There is something so absolutely inconsistent 
between the being justified by grace, and the be¬ 
ing justified by works, that if you suppose either, 
you of necessity exclude the other. For what is 
given to works is the payment of a debt; whereas 
grace implies an unmerited favor. So that the 
same benefit cannot, in the very nature of tilings, 
be derived from both.—John Wesley. 


The distinction between gifts and grace is this: 
Gifts are distributed. Grace is dispensed. Gifts 
are conferred upon particular persons according 
to the sovereign will of God. Grace is free to all. 






GRACE 


69 


Gifts are not to be sought and obtained as grace is 
obtained; but that which is of grace may be sought 
and obtained alike by all upon the same conditions. 
—Rev. R. W. Hawkins. 


So long as the concurrence of man’s will and 
man’s work is required, so long will a failure in 
man defeat God’s mercy, so long may he quench 
the Spirit, so long may he depart from grace given, 
and draw back to perdition. God’s grace is suf¬ 
ficient; but grace excluding possibility to sin, was 
neither given to angels in their creation, nor to 
man before his fall, but reserved for both till God 
be seen face to face in the state of glory.—Hooker. 


True grace comes down from above, even from 
the Father of Light; God’s Spirit, working with and 
by his own ordinances, produceth it in the soul 
and feeds it by the same holy means whereby it 
is wrought; the counterfeit is earth bred, arising 
from mere nature out of the grounds of sensuality. 
True grace drives at no other end than the glory 
of the Giver, and scorns to look lower than heaven; 
the counterfeit aims at nothing but vain applause 
or carnal advantage, not caring to reach an inch 
above his own head.—Bishop Hall. 


KrfUrtinns 

Divine grace is (1) Sovereign, springing wholly 
from the Divine sovereignty and good pleasure seen 





70 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


in (a) the election of the saints of God without 
any merit to commend them, but in spite of natural 
enmity against God; (b) the passing by of the 
apostate angels though, to our finite judgment, their 
redemption would have conduced more to “the 
praise of the glory” of Divine grace; (c) the calling 
away of so many in infancy and early life—with 
out the conflicts and troubles of earth’s hard bat* 
tlefield. (2) Free, the result of no necessity on the 
part of God; no moral obligation to confer grace. 
Grace is not an essential attribute of Deity, which 
must manifest itself in a certain channel; nor from 
any merit, or fitness, or deserving on the part of man. 
—Rev. G. S. Bowes. 



Sjapptttpas 

Whoso trusteth in the Lord happy is he. Prov. 16:20. 

But and if ye suffer for righteousness f sake, happy are 
ye. I Peter 3:14. 


There is no happiness in having, nor in getting, 
but only in giving.—Henry Drummond. 


In seeking happiness from riches, you are only 
straining to drink out of empty cups.—J. Wesley. 


All who are chosen to happiness as the end are 
chosen to holiness as the means.—Matthew Henry. 


Though all men desire, yet few attain happiness 
because they seek it where it is not to be found.— 
John Wesley. 


Our souls can never be truly happy till our wills 
be entirely subjected to, and become one with, 
the will of God.—Adam Clarke. 


We expect happiness as a reward of virtue, and 
misery as the wages of vice and we cannot re¬ 
verse them.—Sel. 








72 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


Happiness consists not in possessing much, but 
in being content with what we possess. He who 
wants little always lias enough.—Zimmerman. 

Happiness, the choice of all, can be directly gained 
by none. It is the gift of God to him, who in the 
spirit of Christ, toils for the good of others.—Fannie 
B. Bates. 


The art in which the secret of human happiness 
consists is to set the habits in such a manner that 
every change may be a change for the better.—Dr. 
Paley. 


What you are in yourself is to determine whether 
you are happy or not. You will not be made happy 
by external things. It is inside that happiness lives. 
—Beecher. 


A man is not happy because he knows much; but 
because he receives much of the Divine nature, 
and is, in all his conduct, conformed to the Divine 
will.—Adam Clarke. 


How many seek for happiness from afar, when 
it can be had by doing good to their neighbors! 
To do good and communicate forget not, if you 
would be happy, if you would enjoy the Savior’s 
smile.—Sel. 


Our future happiness will be proportioned to our 








HAPPINESS 


73 


capacity for enjoyment. The capacity may be en¬ 
larged by our “light afflictions” which “worketh 
for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of 
glory.’ ’—Sel. 


To the soul happiness belongs: of this, it alone 
is capable; and as it is a spiritual being, the hap¬ 
piness of which it is capable must be spiritual, and 
must be produced by the possession, not of earthly, 
but of spiritual good.—Adam Clarke. 


The mind of man is naturally inclined to pleasure, 
and when it finds no happiness in God or hath lost 
its happiness in the things of God it roves abroad 
(like the unclean spirit) after those objects which 
are most adapted to the constitution and temper 
of its owner. 


The happiness of a genuine Christian lies far 
beyond the reach of earthly disturbances, and is not 
affected by the changes and chances to ‘which 
mortal things are exposed. The martyrs were more 
happy in the flames than their persecutors could 
be on their beds of down.—Adam Clarke. 


The law's of the mind are such that it is imposs¬ 
ible for one to be happy while he makes his own 
happiness the supreme object. Happiness consists 
in the gratification of virtuous desires. If each one 
pursues his own happiness as his supreme end, the 






74 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


interests of different individuals will clash, and de¬ 
stroy the happiness of all.—Rev. C. G. Finney. 

The goodness of God, in a state of discipline, will 
not admit of a complete and perfect hap¬ 
piness in this world; for that is no state of 
discipline. Good men themselves, were they as hap¬ 
py in this world as they could wish, would not be 
very fond of another world nor learn those morti¬ 
fying and self-denying virtues which are necessary 
to prepare them for a spiritual life; and bad men 
would grow more in love with this world and sin 
on without cheek or control.—Rev. William Sher¬ 
lock. 


Krflrrttmt 

A drowning man, plucked from the jaws of death, 
is happy with three feet of bare rock beneath him; 
happier than others with thousands of broad acres. 
The wrecked, borne shoreward in the lifeboat that 
is making for the land through roaring seas and 
winter storms, are happier than Egypt’s Queen when 
the sun gleamed on her golden galley. And there 
is no humble Christian, no lover of Jesus, but is 
happier with the hope of heaven, with Christ in him 
“the hope of glory,” than the men of the world 
when their corn and their wine do most abound; 
and all things go well with them.—Guthrie. 




But rather rejoice, because your names are written in 
heaven. Luke 10:20. 

Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new 
heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. 
II Peter 3:13. 


Heaven will be the best that Omnipotent love 
can do for us.—Rev. C. P. Wimberly. 


Heaven is a holy place, and none but holy be¬ 
ings are capacitated for either its employment or 
enjoyment.—Rev. Amos Birniey. 


Heaven may have happiness as utterly unknown 
to us as the gift of perfect vision would be to a man 
born blind.—C. C. Colton. 


In my course to heaven, almost all things are 
against me; but God is for me, and how happily 
still doth the work succeed! Can they take the 
sheep till they have overcome the shepherd?— 
Baxter. 


Heaven is that region where the spirits of just 
men made perfect live, thrive, and eternally expand 
their powers in the service and to the glory of Him 







76 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


from whom they have derived their being.—Adam 
Clarke. 


When we arrive in heaven and realize the sublime 
efforts of Divine grace in the full enjoyment of 
celestial bliss, we shall be astonished at our feeble 
praises and our defective love while sojourning . 
upon earth.—Sel. 


Splendid and beautiful are the descriptions which 
the sacred writers give us of heaven. They have 
selected the loftiest language and the choicest fig¬ 
ures by which to represent its grandeur, its purity, 
its bliss, and immortality.—Sel. 


The full glories of heaven will not be realized 
until after the Last Great Judgment Day. God 
cannot reward men and women for all they have 
done, until their life’s influence has reached its 
limit upon men and women.—Rev. C. F. Wimberly. 

I want to know one thing, the way to heaven: 
how to land safe on that happy shore. God himself 
has condescended to teach the way; for this very 
end he came from heaven. He hath written it 
down in a book! Oh, at any price, give me that 
book!—John Wesley. 


The capital we have laid up in heaven’s high 
treasury, during our lives below*, with interest com¬ 
pounded upon interest, exceeding the principal a 







HEAVEN 


77 


thousand fold, will constitute a fund of wealth 
which will be one source of happiness. We have an, 
inheritance ’ ’ there.—Rev. W. E. Munsey. 

There are “mansions” there, distinct dwellings, 
an apartment for each, accommodations for particu¬ 
lar saints; though all shall be swallowed up in God, 
yet our individuality shall not be lost there. Every 
Israelite had his lot in Canaan, and every elder a 
seat.—Matthew Henry. 


In heaven new joys must open every moment. 
New recognitions of the Lord, new discoveries of 
God’s inexhausted truth. New strains of rapture 
will fill the ear. New banquets of God’s beauty 
and glory fill the soul. And yet newer, fresher, 
sublimer, more magnificent revelations ever burst¬ 
ing upon the glorified spirit.—Sel. 


Heaven is the Christian’s goal, He feels more and 
more sensibly, as he advances toward it, that no¬ 
where else is happiness in fullness to be found. 
And when he reaches it and enters upon his inher¬ 
itance, then, and not till then, can he understand 
the full import of the w r ords, “In my presence is 
fullness of joy.—Rev. A. S. Gardner. 


Can men of the vrorld so delight in looking upon 
their bags of gold, and fields of corn, and shall 
not the heirs of heaven take more delight in con¬ 
templating their glory in reversion? Could we send 






78 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


forth Faith as a spy, and every day view the glory 
of the Jerusalem above, how would it rejoice us. 
—Watson. 


Heaven will not be like a strange place, but like 
a home from which we have been detained; for we 
shall see not strangers, but old familiar faces; and 
faces never by us seen before, will be known 
instantly by us, t by that law iof spiritual, sub¬ 
lime recognition by which spirits know each 
other everywhere even as they know and 
are known instantly of God; and heaven will 
be in its sights, and sounds, and greetings, a 
great home gathering to us who enter it.—Unknown. 


Heaven is called a house; which implies the resi¬ 
dence of a family, sweetly united by the ties of inter¬ 
ests, and pure benevolence. Jesus called it his 
“Father’s house’ , because his father dwells there 
with his family. This house was built by God and 
is inconceivably glorious; and the family in this 
house is lovely and happy beyond description. It 
is a house which will never decay; and a family 
that will never be separated. Part of the family has 
already arrived there; and the other part will soon 
arrive.—Rev. J. E. Edmonson. 


To laud and magnify the Lord is the end for which 
we were born, and the heaven for which we were 
designed; and when we are arrived at such a vig- 





HEAVEN 


T9 

orous sense of Divine love as the blessed inhabitants 
of heaven have attained, we shall need no other 
pleasure or enjoyment to make us forever happy, 
but only to sing eternal praises to God and the 
Lamb; the vigorous relish of whose unquestionable 
goodness to us will so inflame our love, and animate 
our gratitude, that to eternal ages, we shall never 
be able to refrain from breaking out into new 
songs of praise, and then every new song will create 
a new pleasure, and every new pleasure create a 
new song.—Dr. Scott. 


How should we rejoice in the prospects, the cer¬ 
tainty rather, of spending a blissful eternity with 
those whom we loved on earth; of seeing them 
emerge from the ruins of the tomb, and the deeper 
ruins of the fall, not only uninjured, bnt refined 
and perfected “with every tear wiped from their 
eyes,” standing before the throne of God and the 
Lamb in white robes and palms in their hands, cry¬ 
ing with a loud voice, Salvation to God that sitteth 
upon the throne, and to the Lamb forever and ever. 
What delight will it afford to renew the sweet 
counsel we have taken together, to recount the 
toils of combat, and the labor of the way, and to 
toils of combat, and the labor of the way, 
and to approach, not the house, but the 
throne of God in company, in order to join 
in the symphonies of heavenly voices, and lose 
ourselves amid the splendor and fruitions of the 
beatific vision.—Robert Hall. 



80 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


grriptur* JRrfEmttrrH 

Heaven: 

Descriptions, John 14:2, Heb. 11:10, Rev. 21:1-3. 
Characteristics, Rev. 7 :17, Rev. 21:4, II Peter 3:13. 
God’s dwelling place. Ps. 115:3, Isa. 66:1, Matt. 
6 : 9 . 

Conditions of entering, Matt. 25:34, John 3:5, Heb. 
12:14. 

Conditions that bar entrance, I Cor. 6:9-10, GaL 
5:19-21, Rev. 21:27. 


Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast 
into hell. Luke 12:5. 

The rich man also died, and was buried: And in hell he 
lifted up his eyes, being- in torments. Luke 16:22*23. 


In hell, God is forever silent to them and deaf to 
their cry.—Matthew Henry. 


The punishment of the damned is endless punish¬ 
ment and torment in eternal fire.—Justin Martyr. 


To the lost soul in hell, all eternity will be needed 
for lamentations over rejected mercy. 


The atonement did not bridge the chasm be¬ 
tween Lazarus and Dives, for the signboard is up,— 
no crossing here.—Rev. D. F. Brooks. 


Punishment may be conceived as either disciplin¬ 
ary or retributive in its purpose. In hell the pun¬ 
ishment will be retributive. 


The doctrine of hell is fundamental in the Bible, 
and why should we presume to deal gently with 
it.—Rev. C. F. Wimberly. 








82 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


The great solicitude of Christ and his apostles 
for the salvation of men implies that the wicked 
are exposed to eternal punishment.—Amos Binney. 


The torments which a soul endures in the hell 
of fire will form, through all eternity, a continual, 
present source of indescribable woe.—Adam Clarke. 


Man’s future doom is what he will have chosen; 
is what he will have deserved; is what he will have 
fitted himself for. Acts 1:25.—Dean Ramsay 


The strongest possible terms are used to express 
the endless duration of the punishment of the wick¬ 
ed. Matt. 25 :41-46, Luke 16 :26, Rev. 20:10.—Rev. 
Amos Binney. 


There is no injustice in hell, more than there is in 
heaven. He who does not deserve it shall never 
fall into the bitter pains of eternal death.—Adam 
Clarke. 


The fires of hell will not consume, but burn on and 
on forever. It seems to have all the elements of 
physical fire, except combustion; nothing is des¬ 
troyed.—Rev. C. F. Wimberly. 


The four Scriptural words that have been trans¬ 
lated “hell,”—Sheol, Hades, Tartaros, and Gehenna, 
signify: 1. The grave; 2. The place of separate 








HELL 


83 


•s 


spirits; 3. The place of the devil and the damned.— 

Sel. 


Hell is a place of infinite horrors because it is 
where all moral evil will be sent. Because the 
guilt of sin is infinite. Because of its adaptation to 
the wicked. The suffering will be unmitigated.— 
Rev. W. E. Munsey. 


Hell will be a place of supreme suffering. Suf¬ 
fering of mind, soul and the immortal body. All 
that will produce suffering to our physical bodies, 
our mind, and torture the soul, will be in operation 
in hell.—Rev. C. F. Wimberly. 


It may also be considered that the punishment 
of the wicked is not merely in proportion to sin but 
in proportion to the parallel eternity of glory offered. 
It is the punishment of beings to whom eternal life 
has been tendered and by whom it has been re¬ 
jected.—Ibid. 


The memories of damned souls will be their tor¬ 
mentors, and conscience will then be awakened and 
stirred up to do its office, which here they would not 
suffer it to do. Nothing will bring more oil to the 
flames of hell than, “Son, remember.’’—Matthew 
Henry. 


The lost soul will raise himself out of the 
fire only to fall back into it. He will always feel the 


v 


'/ 







84 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


desire of rising, because he was created for God, 
as a bird shut up in a room flies to the ceiling and 
falls down again; the justice of God is the ceiling 
which keeps down the lost.—Vianney. 


There is a bottomless pit. A deathless soul is 
cast therein; it sinks, and sinks, and sinks, going 
down that awful pit which knows no bottom, weep¬ 
ing and wailing as it descends and you hear its 
groans as they echo and re-echo from the sides of 
that dread cavern of woe.—Rev. C. G. Finney. 


Hell was made for the **devil and his angels.” 
They rebelled in heaven before the world/ was in 
its present state. For these heaven-born criminals, 
God had to prepare a place, and that place was 
hell and is the hell to come. It is now for the men 
and women of earth who follow Satan, as it was for 
angels who followed him in the long ago.—Rev. 
C. F. Wimberly. 


Antful Seflcrtionn 

In the dismal regions of the damned, the rich 
man had a sight of heaven; but it was far off, and 
out of his reach, lie “seeth Abraham afar off, and 
Lazarus in his bosom,” but that sight gave him no 
relief in his extreme torment. A sight of heaven 
will increase the anguish of the damned, because 
they will know assuredly that all the glory which 
thev see is lost to them forever.—Rev. J. Edmondson. 





HELL 


85 


Impenitent sinners in hell shall have end without 
end, death without death, night without day, mourn¬ 
ing without mirth, sorrow without solace and bond¬ 
age without liberty. The damned shall live as 
long in hell as God Himself shall live in heaven. 
Their imprisonment in that land of darkness, in 
that bottomless pit, is not an imprisonment during 
the King’s pleasure but an imprisonment, during 
the everlasting displeasure of the King of kings. 
—Brooks. 


li Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, 
prepared for the devil and his angels.” Who says 
this? These words mean all that the cross means; 
for it was because the Savior knew the awful etern¬ 
ity that is before the wicked that He died to redeem 
us from hell. Ah, these are Christ’s own words, 
and therefore do they take away hope. And why 
did He utter them ? That you and I might fear; 
that you and 1 might flee!—might fear the just 
punishment of our sins; might flee from the wrath to 
come.—Rev. J. Thompson. 



Ifnltttffla 

Be ye lioly; for I am holy. I Peter 1:16. 

According as he hath chosen us in him before the found¬ 
ation of the world, that we should be holy and without 
blame before him in love. Eph. 1:4. 


Holiness is a conformity to the whole Divine na¬ 
ture.—John Wesley. 


The ‘‘death ’ 1 in seeking holiness centers in am¬ 
bition or affection.—Rev. Joseph Smith. 


Inward holiness is always manifested by outward 
righteousness.—Rev. E. Hilton Post. 


Sanctification is the entire aim and purpose of 
man’s creation and renewal.—Dean Alford. 


The objective point in holiness is not cleansing but 
‘‘all the fullness of God.”—Rev. D. B. Hampe. 


Entire sanctification does not deliver from infirm¬ 
ities of the body, of the mind, nor of the spirit.—Sel. 


To retain perfect purity requires a continual act- 









HOLINESS 


87 


ing of faith upon the leading promises of the gospel. 
—Rev. James Caughey. 


True holiness reflects the image of God in this 
respect as well as in others, that it is calm, thought¬ 
ful, deliberate, immutable.—Upham. 


Entire sanctification, or Christian perfection, 
is neither more nor less than pure love; love expel¬ 
ling sin, and governing both the heart and life of 
a child of God.—John Wesley. 


The soundly converted takes not holiness as the 
stomach doth the loathed potion, which it will down 
with rather than die, but as the hungry doth his 
beloved food.—Joseph Alleine. 


Entire sanctification is obtained not by growth in 
grace, but by an act of faith whereby the believer 
is instantly cleansed from all sin and filled with the 
Holv Ghost.—Sel. 


As God is absolutely holy; and as he has called 
us his children,and made us his heirs, we must be 
positively holy, as the necessary qualification to 
reflect his image, honor him, and dwell with him, 
in Paradise.—Rev. J. A. Wood. 


As Christ came to the cross, so the seeker of holi¬ 
ness will come to his cross where he chooses to die 
to the self life or carnal nature. In dying this 








88 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


death, he lives the “more abundant life” by the 
baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire.—Sel. 


Rev. C. G. Finney said “No man can be a Christian 
who does not sincerely desire holiness and constant¬ 
ly aim at it. No man can be a friend of God who 
can acquiesce in a state of sin, and who is satisfied 
when he is not holy, as God is holy.” 


Entire holiness is the extermination of all sin from 
the soul. It is a pure unsullied heart; it is “death 
to sin” a “freedom from sin,” a cleansing from all 
filthiness of the flesh and spirit.” The fountain of 
thought, affection, desire and impulse is pure.—Rev. 
Lowrey. 


Be sure that your profession of holiness is vin¬ 
dicated in your life by all “the fruit of the spirit.” 
As it can not be taken simply upon its own strength, 
it will go for nothing without the fruit of the spirit, 
love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, good¬ 
ness, faith, meekness, temperance.—Rev. J. A. Wood. 


Holiness is that participation of the Divine na¬ 
ture which excludes all original depravity or inbred 
sin from the heart, and fills it with perfect love to 
God and man—perfect love, the unction of the Holy 
one and the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Entire 
sanctification is that act of the Holy Ghost whereby 
the justified soul is made holy.—Rev. Amos Binney. 






HOLINESS 


89 


To be filled with the fullness of God is to have the 
heart emptied of and cleansed from all sin and de¬ 
filement. A fullness of humility precludes all pride; 
of meekness, precludes anger; of gentleness, all 
ferocity; of goodness, all evil; of justice, all injus¬ 
tice ; of holiness, all sin; of mercy, all unkindness 
and revenge; of truth, all falsity and dissimulation. 
—Adam Clarke. 


In order to get a clean heart, a man must know 
and feel its depravity, acknowledge and deplore it 
before? God, in order to be fully sanctified. Few are 
pardoned, because they do not feel and confess their 
sins; and few are sanctified and cleansed from all 
sin, because they do not feel and confess their own 
sore and the plague of their hearts.—Adam Clarke. 


Exactly as we are justified by faith, so are we 
sanctified by faith. Faith is the condition of sanc¬ 
tification, exactly as it is of justification. It is the 
condition; none are sanctified but he that believes ; 
every one that believes is sanctified, whatever else 
he has or has not. In other words, no man is sanc¬ 
tified till he believes; every man when he believes is 
sanctified.—John Wesley. 


All those that shall be saved hereafter must be 
sanctified as well as justified here, all that receive 
the heavenly inheritance must be thus entitled to it 
and make meet for it: and none can be saints in 
heaven that are not first saints on earth; so w^e need 





90 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


(no more to insure our happiness in a future world, 
than to possess these blessings in this world.—Rev. 
Joseph Benson. 


Although, therefore, it usually pleases God to 
interpose some time between justification and sanc¬ 
tification, yet we must not fancy this to be an in¬ 
variable rule. All who think this, must think we 
are sanctified by works, or which comes to the same, 
by suffering; for otherwise, what is time necessary 
for? It must be either to do, or to suffer. Whereas, 
if nothing be required but simple faith, a moment 
is as good as an age.—John Wesley. 


lltblc Srabutga 

1. Remains of Inbred Sin in Believers, Matt. 4:11, 
I Cor. 3 :l-3, II Cor. 7 :1, Gal. 5:17. 

2. God Convicts for Entire Sanctification or the 
Eradication of Inbred Sin, Gen. 32:26-27, II Kings 
2:9, Ps. 51:1-10, Isa. 6:5, Acts 1:4-5. 

3. Why We Should be Sanctified: 

(1) God wills it. Rom. 12:1-2, Eph. 1:4, I Thess. 
4:3-7, Heb. 10:9-10. 

(2) God promises it. Deut. 30:6, Jer. 33:8, Ezek. 
36:25-29, Hosea 2:19, Joel 2:28-29, Matt. 3:11, Matt. 
5:6, Luke 24:49, John 14:16, John 15:26, Acts 1:4-5, 
Acts 2:33-39. 

(3) God commands it. Gen. 17:1, Lev. 11:44-45, 
Deut. 10 :12, Matt. 5:48, Matt. 22:37, I Tim. 1:5, Heb 
6:1, I Peter 1:15-16. 

(4) It is provided for in the Atonement. Ps 




HOLINESS 


91 


130:7-8, Matt. 1:21, Rom. 8:3-4, Eph. 5:25-27, Titus 
2:14, Heb. 9 :13-14, Heb. 13:20-21, I John 1:7, I John 
3:8. 

(5) It is a necessary preparation for heaven. 
Matt. 5:8, Col. 1:21-22, I Thess. 3:13, Heb. 12:14, 
Rev. 3:4-5, Rev. 21:27, 

4. The justified are Candidates for Sanctification. 
John 14:15-17, Rom. 8:28, Rom. 12:1, I Thess. 4:1-3, 
II Tim, 1:9. 

5. How We are Sanctified: 

(1) By Christ’s Blood. Heb. 10:14-19, I Peter 
1:2, I John 1:7. 

(2) By God’s Word. John 17:17, Acts 20:32. 

(3) By the Holy Ghost. Rom. 15:16,1 Peter 1:2, 22. 

(4) By our Will. I John 3:3, Rom. 12:1, Rom. 6 :19. 

(5) By faith. Acts 11:17, Acts 15:9, Acts 26:17-18, 
Gal. 3:14. 

6. When We Are Sanctified: 

(1) In this present life. Luke 1:74-75, I Thess. 
5:23, I John 4:17, 

(2) Instantaneously. Ps. 51:10, Isai. 6:6-7, Matt. 
3:11, Acts 2 :l-5, Acts 19 :2, I John 1:7. 

7. The Witness of the Holy Spirit to Holiness. 
John 14:26, John 16:13, Acts 15:8, Eph. 1:13, 
I John 3:24.—Sel. 


God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble, 
II Peter 5:5. 

For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth 
eternity whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and 
holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble 
spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive 
the heart of the contrite ones. Isaiah 57:15. 


Be humble, the bough that bears most fruit hangs 
lowest. 


The moment humility is spoken of by him that 
has it, that moment it is gone. 


Humility is the great preserver of peace and or¬ 
der in all Christian churches and societies.—Mat¬ 
thew Henry. 


To dispraise and lower ones self for the set pur¬ 
pose to be placed higher is not bona fide abasement. 
—Dean Alford. 


Humility is a sense of our absolute nothingness 
in the view of infinite greatness and excellence.— 
Rev. R. Hall. 


True humility consists not so much in thinking 
meanly of ourselves as in not thinking of ourselves 
at all.—Rev. G. S. Bowers. 








HUMILITY 


93 


Humility is not a comparison between ourselves 
and others, but between what we are and what we 
ought to be.—Washington Allston. 


A humble man fears when he hears himself com¬ 
mended lest God make another judgment concern¬ 
ing his action than men do.—Jeremy Taylor. 


If we humble not ourselves under God’s grace, 
he will humble us under his judgments. Those who 
patiently submit to him he exalts in due time; if 
he has the power to depress, he is also mighty to 
exalt.—Adam Clarke. 


“Whosoever shall exalt himself shall be hum¬ 
bled, and he that shall humble himself shall be ex¬ 
alted.” It is observable that no other one sentence 
of our Lord’s is so often repeated as this: it occurs, 
with scarcely any variation, at least ten times in 
the evangelists.—John Wesley. 


Nothing makes so solemn an impression upon 
sinners, and bears down with such a tremendous 
weight on their consciences, as to see a Christian, 
Christ-like, bearing affronts and injuries with the 
meekness of a lamb. It cuts like a two-edged sword. 
—Chas. Finney. 


Humility, though it should expose us to contempt 
in the world, yet while it recommends us to the 
favor of God, qualifies us for his gracious visits, pre- 








94 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


pares us for his glory, secures us from many temp¬ 
tations, and preserves the quiet and repose of our 
own souls.—Matthew Henry. 


SrflrrttmtB 

Alas, how few desire the grace of humility, how 
few seek it! Jesus taught his disciples that the 
greatest in the kingdom of heaven would be they 
who had humbled themselves as a little child. Only 
once he spoke of his heart and that was to say, 
“Learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart/’ 
On the cross he suffered in silent humility speaking 
only a few short sentences. After he was glorified 
he said, “I am the root and the offspring of David.” 


Continue to seek after more and more humility, 
and the grace of meekness will be proportionate¬ 
ly manifest. Meekness is the greatest grace. It is 
the chief yet the rarest ornament of Christian 
character. It can neither be assumed nor cultivated. 
The semblance of it may be obtained by obedience to 
the rules of etiquette, but the counterfeit is easily 
detected. To strive after meekness by assuming 
a demure and sanctimonious manner or by using 
derogatory expressions against ourselves for the pur¬ 
pose of appearing unconscious of the gifts which God 
has bestowed upon us, is worse than useless. If not 
done ignorantly it is sheer hypocrisy; and is one of 
the surest indications of spiritual pride.—Rev. R. W. 
Hawkins. 




3/ntf 

The joy of the Lord is your strength. Neh. 8:10. 

These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might 
remain in you, and that your joy might be full. John 15:11. 

I was formed for celestial joys—Elizabeth Rowe. 


Holy joy will be oil to the wheels of our obedi¬ 
ence.—Matthew Henry. 


The joy of faith is the best remedy against the 
griefs of sense.—Matthew Henry. 


Peace is the flowing of the brook, but joy is the 
dashing of the cataract when the brook overflows, 
bursts its banks, and rushes down the rocks.—C. H. 
Spurgeon. 


Joy is not an aim and object in itself. Joy always 
follows in the train of something else—the train of 
the will of God. It is the by-product of obedience.— 
J. II. McConkev. 


The joy of the Lord will arm us against the 
asaults of our spiritual enemies, and put our mouths 








96 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


out of taste for those pleasures with which the 
tempter baits his hooks.—Matthew Henry. 


The spirit of God, is not only joy himself essen¬ 
tially, but the cause and communicator of it to the 
redeemed. “And the disciples -were filled with joy, 
and with the Holy Ghost.”—Ambrose Serle. 


In the epistle to the Philippians, the word “re¬ 
joice” appears twelve times. Paul WTOte this letter 
from his prison cell in Rome. It is the most joyous 
epistle that he wrote.—Rev. A. L. Whitcemb. 


When joy is the result of particular exertions, it 
tends to excite and encourage, to animate the lan¬ 
guid, to kindle fresh hope in the desponding, and 
to redouble the ardor of the most active.—James 
McCrie. 


Worldly joys are soon gone. But the joys which . 
believers have are abiding; they are a blossom of 
eternity, a pledge and earnest of those rivers of 
pleasure which run at God’s right hand for evermore, 
—Watson. 


Do not seek the gift of joy but the Giver. There 
is a subtle selfishness in crying for joy. If you re¬ 
ceive the Giver you will insure all his gifts. But 
beware lest you fix your eyes on the gift aside from 
the Giver. “God is a jealous God.”—Rev. Daniel 
Steele. 







JOY 


97 


The joy, and the sense of salvation which the 
pure in heart have here, is not a joy severed from 
the joy of heaven, but a joy that begins with us 
here, and continues, and accompanies us thither, and 
there flows on, and dilates itself to an infinite ex¬ 
pansion.—Donne. 


Christian joy exists in every degree, There is 
the joy of penitence. There follows the joy of con¬ 
scious pardon and adoption. But when we enter 
upon the fullness of the Spirit, in tne words of Mr. 
Wesley, “it will feast our souls with such peace 
and joy in Cod as will blot out the remembrance of 
everything that we called peace and joy before.— 
Daniel Steele. 


Carnal joy is a flash and away; leaves the mind in 
more extreme and deeper darkness; blasts the heart 
and affections with all spiritual deadness and des¬ 
olations. Godly joy is like the light of the sun, which 
though it may for a time be overcast with clouds 
of temptations, mists of troubles, persecutions, and 
darkness of meancholy, yet it ordinarily breaks out 
again with more sweetness and splendor when the 
storm is over.—Bolton. 


Joy is the highest emotion. We cannot be joyful 
at will; and assumed joy is mockery: but we ma so 
rejoice in the Lord, that our joy shall continually 
increase. There is a marked distinction between 
joy and rejoicing. One is emotion, the 1 other an act. 





98 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


Joy is an emotion of delight. Rejoicing is an act of 
expressing joy, or of offering praise. Joy may be 
realized without beiog expressed; and the act of 
rejoicing may be performed without realizing joy. 
We may not always be joyful, but we may always 
rejoice.—Rev. R. W. Hawkins. 


Joy, like the tide, ebbs and flows. There are times 
when the soul, without effort apprehends the love 
of God, and joy unspeakable fills, floods, and over¬ 
whelms it. Suddenly this bright manifestation is 
withdrawn, while no testimony of the Spirit is left 
behind against any act of ours as the cause. While 
there is no cloud nor doubt there is no direct assur¬ 
ance. All is a waveless, breathless calm. Then is 
the time to walk by the lamp of faith, since the 
sunlight of the direct and joyful witness of God’s 
love is withdrawn. Beware lest you admit the 
thought that the fullness of God has left you with 
the cessation of the exultant joy of the Holy Spirit. 
—Rev. Daniel Steele. 


But not all joy is Christian. Joys may be classified 
as (1) unnatural, (2) natural, (3) supernatural. The 
first is the exhilaration resulting from the applica¬ 
tion of stimulants to the nervous system. This is 
the secret of the fatal fascination of the cup. (2) 
There is a mere animal joy which flows from the 
healthful condition of the body. Higher than this 
is the gladness of worldly success, the intellectual 
triumph of the student, the approval of a good con- 




JOY 


99 


science, the gladness of beneficence. All these kinds 
of joys are natural. They are transient, and limited 
to this world. (3) The joy of the Holy Ghost. It 
is supernatural—an outgushing fountain from a rock 
stricken by the rod of a greater than Moses. It is 
a joy not springing up in the course of nature, but 
handed down from heaven, and implanted in the be¬ 
lieving soul. It is really a miraculous spring opened 
by the Holy Spirit in the Sahara of the human breast. 
—Rev. Daniel Steele. 




) 

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) 


* 




2(mJmes0 

And be ye kind one to another. Eph. 4:32. 

For his merciful kindness is great toward us: and the 
truth of the Lord endureth forever. Praise ye the Lord. 
Ps. 117:2. 


No eloquence is so efficient as the mildness of 
a kind heart.— E. L. Magoon. 


Kindness is the disposition which leads us to pro¬ 
mote the happiness of others.—Sel. 


Kindness—a language which the dumb can speak 
and the deaf can understand.—Sel. 


Kindness is a mode of affection most fitted for 
social beings; it is what everyone can show, and 
every one is pleased to receive.—Sel. 


Kind words cost little effort, and yet they are an 
elixir of joy for those who are sick at heart simply 
for the want of them.—Rev. L. M. Zimmerman. 


If you live to be as old as Methuselah, you will 
never regret being kind to everybody, but if you 
have ever said an unkind word to anybody, you will 

t, 

t \ 

. R S' 0 

lV o 

l ), f 








KINDNESS 


101 


r 


be sorry for it, even if you should live to be as old as 
he.—J. T. Logan. 


Write 1 your name in kindness, love and mercy 
on the hearts of thousands you come in contact with 
year by year; you will never be forgotten. No; 
your name, your deeds will be as legible on the hearts 
you leave behind as the stars on the brow of the 
evening.—Dr. Chalmers. 


Kind words cost no more than unkind ones. 
Kind words produce kind actions, not ouly on the 
part of those to whom they are addressed, but on 
the part of those by whom they are employed: 
and this not incidentally only but habitually, in vir¬ 
tue of the principle of association.—Jeremy Bentham. 


Loving kindness is the result of the combination of 
love and kindness, and their action and reaction 
upon each other. A new virtue consisting of the 
best elements of both is thus produced; love giving 
to kindness warmth, color, and intensity; kind¬ 
ness lending to love a vehicle and a form.—Sel. 


The Samaritan leaves us a good example of los¬ 
ing kindness. ? When he saw the man who had been 
so abused by the robbers, he had compassion on 

j 

him. (Compassion signifies, a suffering with its 
object.) He afforded him instant and ample relief, 
without the selfish view of a reward, or the proud 
desire of human applause.—Sel. 






102 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


Why not be kind to animals also ? They were cre¬ 
ated to serve us and since they can comprehend no 
higher being than man, we are obligated to be kind 
to them. Many of them have the faculty to appre¬ 
ciate kindness. Rev. A. T. Jennings tells of seeing 
a dog that was drowning. Somebody had tied a 
stone to its neck. He said the dog looked at him so 
pitifully that he rescued it. Everywhere he went 
it followed him.Abraham Lincoln once saw a bug 
lying on its back. He stopped and with his boot, 
turned it over on its feet, remarking to his friend, 
that he wanted that bug to have an equal chance 
with other bugs of its class. 


VitfLtttwm 

We are told that the act of giving a sop as did 
Jesus to Judas at his betrayal, was the customary 
expression of a “special” act of loving kindness. 
Christian readers, let us manifest some special act 
of loving kindness to the ones who most grievously 
wrong us. This will bring blessing on our soul and 
may win the wrong doer back to God. In this act 
the loving kindness of God went its limit to save 
Judas from eternal death. 



Hif? 

For what is your life? James 4:14. 

He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the 
Son of God hath not life. I John 5:12. 

Life, like love, survives and thrives only by giv¬ 
ing.—Rev. L. M. Zimmjerman. 


In time and life, the great business relative to 
eternity is to be transacted.—Adam Clarke. 


Physical life is union of soul and body. Spiritual 
life is union of soul and God.—Griffith Thomas. 


It is not learning, but life that is wanted for the 
Messiah’s Kingdom; and life must begin by birth. 
•—Dean Alford. 


There is no organic life without growth in nature; 
and there is no spiritual life without growth in 
grace.—Goulburn. 


“It is an awful thing to be born” said one, “be¬ 
cause we have got into existence and can never get 
out of it..” 








104 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


How short, how precarious is life! And yet what 
awful and weighty things depend upon it.—Francis 
Ashbury. 


Every stroke of my heart that I listen to at night 
sounds to me as the ax of a woodman hacking down 
the tree of life.—Sel. 


The only great thing in a life is what of God’s 
will there is in it. The maximum achievement, is 
to have done the will of God.—Henry Drummond. 


What is the design of life? Apart from immort¬ 
ality, what a failure is man; nay, tie is an enigma 
baffling all our conceptions of the Deity. 


The law of life is that the fruit shall be as the seed, 
and the end as the beginning: unless, indeed the 
higher law of Divine Mercy interposes on a timely 
repentance.—Macmillan. 


As God alone gives life, so he alone has the 
right to take it away; and he who, without the 
authority of God, takes away life, is properly a 
murderer.—Adam Clarke. 


It often means a great sacrifice to lose life, but, 
what of it! Is it not better to lose life and find it 
than to selfishly find life and lose it?—Rev. L. M. 
Zimmerman. 








LIFE 


105 


Great men never wait for opportunities, they make 
them. Bunyan wrote, “Pilgrim’s Progress” on the 
untwisted paper used to cork the bottles of milk 
brought for his meals. 


Did God send men like the swallows into the 
world, only to gather a few sticks and dirt, and 
build their nests, and breed up their young, and 
then away? The very heathens could see farther 
than this.—Joseph Alleine. 


God has sent for our use in our course across the 
sea of life, a Life Boat, also a Captain to pilot us 
safely to the stormless port. He knows the sea we 
cross.—Rev. L. M. Zimmerman. 


The miseries and afflictions of this life wean good 
men from this world, and lay great restraints upon 
bad men; which justifies both the wisdom and 
goodness of God in those many miseries which man¬ 
kind suffer.—Rev. William Sherlock. 


Every step you take, you tread on chords that will 
vibrate through all eternity. Every time you move 
you touch keys whose sound will re-echo over all the 
hills and dales in heaven and through all the dark 
caravans and vaults of hell.—C. G. Finney. 


Life is so full of opportunities for doing good that 
every one should so redeem the time and buy up the 
opportunities that each one may, by word and deed, 







106 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


add his contribution toward making this a more 
blessed world in which to live and life itself a more 
precious gift.—Rev. L. M. Zimmerman. 

Milton says, “Circumstances have rarely favored 
famous men. They have fought their way to triumph 
through all sorts of opposing obstacles. The greatest 
thing a man can do in this world is to make the most 
possible out of the stuff that has been given him. 
This is success and there is no other.” 


A life may be very brief in this world, and yet 
complete. The man of sixty summers in the world 
of sin cannot say at death that his work is done, 
while the little babe that has brought joy into the 
home and then, after a year or ten years, returns 
to God can say: “I have finished the work Thou 
gavest me to do.”—Rev. L. M. Zimmerman. 


Courage! then my friend; do the little that you 
can within your sphere, and God will make it great. 
Work at that which is within the area of your chain, 
and Christ will carry it out far beyond the limits 
of your personal and immediate circle. You may 
be fettered but He whom you serve is not bound: 
and so that which you put into his hand may be sent 
by him the world over.—Rev. W. M. Taylor. 


Olrntrlufiton 

Man was created in the image of God. He is a 
reflex of a Divine being. In some respects that 







LIFE 


107 


image has been disfigured. In other respects it has 
not been marred, and cannot be. As God is a spirit, 
so man has a spirit. Must that spirit, like God’s, not 
be immortal? Like God, too, man is a free person. 
Can the creature lose his free agency any sooner than 
the Creator lose his?—Sel. 


Most m'en complain of the shortness of life; but 
few improve it as it flies. Short as it is, it is long 
enough for every necessary purpose. Good men 
should rejoice that it is no longer. Heaven is their 
home, and they will soon be there. If wicked men 
were to live longer, they might do more mischief, 
increase their guilt, and add to the punishments 
which await them in a future state. Time is of in¬ 
finite value While others indulge anxious desires 
to live long, let it be our principal care to live well; 
and then we shall be happy beyond the grave. 
God grant it to us all for Christ’s sake.—Rev. 
J. Edmondson. 



HJmr? 

And now abideth faith, hope love, these three; but the 
greatest of these is love. I Cor. 13:13. 

Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me he 
will keep my words; and my Father will love him, and we 
will come unto him, and make our abode with him. John 
14:23. 


Gifts never satisfy, but love does.—Set. 


There can be no love without self-sacrifice.—Rev. 
Jules C. Hare. 


The Divinity of Christ’s love is the ground of the 
saint’s confidence.—Sel. 


Love to God implies knowledge, because it is im¬ 
possible to love what is unknown.—Ambrose Serle. 


Love is the queen of graces; it outshines all others, 
as the sun the lesser planets.—T. Watson. 


We forget that Christian love and union below 
are the same in kind, though not in degree, with 
those above. 


The love of Christ is the most interesting subject 









LOVE 


109 


that can be presented to the contemplation of the 
human mind.—Sel. 


God loves all men with the love of benevolence, 
but he does not feel the love of complacency toward 
any but those who live holy.—Rev. Chas G. Finney. 


Our Savion declares love to God to be the first 
and great duty of man, and that it involves all other 
duties.—Luther Lee. 


Love is not a product of the reason. It is the free 
play of the spiritual sensibilities in the possession 
of its object.—Daniel Steele. 


The very climax of love is what it will suffer, its 
highest proof is what it will suffer and its highest ex¬ 
pression is suffering.—Jas. A. McConkey. 


Love was the cord that bound the God-man to the 
holy cross; the nails and the cross could not have 
held him had not love bound him fast.—St. Cath¬ 
arine.. 


No man loves God by nature any more than he 
does a stone or the earth he treads upon. What 
we love we delight in; but no man has naturally any 
delight in God.—John Wesley. 


Christian love and fellowship do not necessarily 









110 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


go together. Love depends upon our own religious 
condition. Fellowship takes into account the con¬ 
dition of another.—B. T. Roberts. 


Love, as it exists in human nature, is the inclination 
cr affection of the mind to some object, -which it con¬ 
ceives to be valuable in itself or proper for its own 
welfare.—Ambrose Serle. 


Love springs from no created source, but from the 
heart of God. There in the depths of that bosom, 
-which is iove, its hidden fount was 'lied and th**’ n e 
from that fount, it has descended to the earth.— 
Traill. 


“Love your enemies.” This is the most sublime 
precept ever delivered to man: a false religion 
durst not give a precept of this nature, because, with¬ 
out supernatural influence it must be forever im¬ 
practicable.—Adam Clarke. 


He loves God with all his soul, with all his life, 
who is ready to give up his life for His sake; who 
is ready to endure all sorts of torments, and to be 
deprived of all kinds of comforts, rather than dis¬ 
honor God.—Adam Clarke. 


“Love suffereth long and is kind,” it suffers 
all the weakness, ignorance, errors and infirmities 
of the children of God: all the malice and wicked- 







LOVE 


111 


ness of the children of the world; and all this not 
only for a time, but to the end.—John Wesley. 


Love is properly the image of God in the soul: 
for God is love. By faith we receive from our 
Maker; by hope we expect a future and eternal good: 
but by love we are like God; and by it alone are 
qaulified to enjoy heaven, and be one with Him 
forever.—Adam Clarke. 


Why are the angles so swift and winged in God’s 
service, but because they love Him Jacob thought 
seven years but little for the love he did bear to 
Rachel. Love is never weary: he* who loves money 
is not weary of toiling for it; and he who loves 
God is not weary of serving Him.—Watson. 


Love is the essence of God’s moral character, the 
essence of God’s moral law. Could it be otherwise 
than that love should be the essence of man’s spirit¬ 
ual life, who, is himself, but a minature copy of the 
Creator, and sustaining the relations he does is 
necessarily under moral law?—Rev. W. E. Munsey. 


Love is the incentive to all obedience, as being the 
fulfilling of the law. Such person is not obliged to 
derive the principle of his obedience from anything 
outward: the moral law is before his eyes: but the 
love of God shed abroad in his heart, is the princi¬ 
ple by which he obeys it.—Adam Clarke. 






112 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


Love* is the beauty of Him who is fairer than all 
the children of men. It is the beauty which he most 
desires in those who would be like him in blessedness 
and glory. When the heart is made a garden for thet 
culture of all meekness and gentleness and love, 
the lost beauty of Paradise is restored and the ever¬ 
lasting beauty of heaven is begun on earth.—Rev. 
Daniel March. 


The love of God reaches from the eternal purpose 
of the mission of Christ, to the eternity of blessed¬ 
ness which is to be enjoyed by the pure in heart 
in his ineffable glories. Its depth reaches to the 
lowest fallen of the sons of Adam, and to the deepest 
depravity of the human heart; and its height to the 
infinite dignities of the throne of Christ.—Adam 
Clarke. 


Application 

We may die without thei knowledge of many 
truths, and yet be carried in to Abraham’s bosom. 
But if we die without love, what will knowledge 
avail? Just as much as it avails the devil and his 
angels! The God of love forbid that we should ever 
make the trial! May he prepare us for the knowl¬ 
edge of all truth by filling our hearts with all his 
love, and with all joy and peace in believing.— 
John Wesley. 


Love suffereth long and is kind. Love envieth not. 





LOVE 


113 


Love vaunteth not itself. Love is not puffed up. 
Love doth not behave itself unseemly. Love seeketh 
not her own. Love is not provoked. Love thinketh 
no evil. Love rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoic- 
eth in the truth. Love beareth all things. Love be- 
lieveth all things. Love hopeth all things. Love 
endureth all things. Love never faileth. I Cor. 
13 : 4 - 8 . 


SD 


UltfittatimtB 

Meditate upon these things. I Timothy 4:15. 

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart 
be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. 
Psalm 19:14. 


The blessed man, Psalm 1:2, “and in his law doth 
he meditate day and night.” 


Enoch had this testimony that he “pleased God. ,f 
0 the blessedness of such a testimony! 


The idea of meditation is, “to get into the middle 
of things.” Meditation is to the mind what diges¬ 
tion is to the body.—G. B. P. Hallock. 


If I live only for this present life, the bird, the 
beast, and the worm will rebuke me for putting 
myself on a level with them when God made me to 
be an heir of immortality.—Daniel March. 


When you are reading on religious subjects you 
do well to stop now and then, and betake yourself 
to meditation and prayer in silence especially when 
any portion read touches and affects you.—Madame 
Guyon. 








MEDITATIONS 


115 


They who do not carefully and closely follow the 
Spirit, easily slide into desiring “vain glory’’ the 
natural effects of which are, provoking to envy them 
that are beneath us, and envying them that are above 
us.—John Wesley. 


I make no account of any profit or pleasure that 
does not bring me closer to God. And I shrink from 
no hardship or misunderstanding if thereby I will 
be more completely weaned from the things of time 
and sense and united to God.—John Wesley. 


Friend, how will it be when you come to the end 
where the world will have shriveled to its true 
littleness, and eternity looms up to its true bigness: 
when the things which are seen are really found 
to be temporal and the things which are unseen 
eternal?—Jas. H. McConey. 


Some of our greatest blessings come in the hour 
of meditation. “And Isaac went out to meditate 
in the field at the eventide: and he lifted up his 
eyes, and saw, and, behold the camels were coming. 
And Rebekah lifted up her eyes and when she saw 
Isaac, she lighted off the camel.” 


True meditation is no other than faith, hope, love, 
joy melted down together, as it were, by the fire of 
God’s holy Spirit and offered up to God in secret. 
He that is wholly in these, will be little in worldly 






116 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


company, in other studies, in collecting books, med¬ 
als, or butterflies.—John Wesley. 


In worldly things men are ambitious to get as 
high as they can. Christians have a far more noble 
ambition. The difference between the very highest 
and the lowest state- in the world, is nothing to the 
smallest difference between the degrees of glory. 
But who has time to think of this?—John Wesley. 


The riches of this world, in their largest share, 
are soon counted; and, when we have counted them, 
must soon be lost. It will, in a short time, be of very 
little consequence, whether our station in this life 
has been conspicuous or mean, or whether our cir¬ 
cumstances below have been affluent or penurious.—* 
Ambrose Serle. 


Nothing is too hard for God. Hei delights in 
difficulties. Did he not purposely allow the Jordan 
to overflow its banks before he took his people over? 
Did he not purposely allow Lazarus to be four days 
in the grave before he was raised? The church 
that believes this will stop at no obstacle and will 
fear no foe.—E. W. Hicks. 


The Christian need not go to heaven to see God or 
to regale yourself with God. Nor need you speak 
loud as if He were far away. Nor need you cry for 
wings like a dove so as to fly to Him. Settle your¬ 
self in solitude, and you will come upon God in 






MEDITATIONS 


117 


yourself. And then entreat Him as your Father, and 
relate to Him your troubles.—Santa Teresa. 


Years ago General Booth made the following state¬ 
ment: “I am of the opinion that the chief dangers 
which confront the coming century will be religion 
without the Holy Spirit;—Christianity without 
Christ; forgiveness without repentance; salvation 
without regeneration; politics without God; and 
heaven without hell.” 


They who labor for themselves, are sure to be dis¬ 
appointed. Let them gain their object: when gained 
it becomes worthless. Whatever it may be, their 
cupidity always darts beyond it. They on the other 
hand, who labor for others in the spirit of self- 
sacrifice, are sure to succeed. For self-sacrifice has 
the unshakable assurance of charity, which never 
faileth.—Rev Jules C. Hare. 


Every morning compose your soul for a tranquil 
day, and all through it be careful often to recall 
your resolution and bring yourself back to it so to 
say. If something discomposes you, do not be upset 
or troubled; but having discovered the fact, humble 
yourself gently before God and try to bring your 
mind into a quiet attitude. Strive to attain a calm, 
gentle spirit.—Francis de Sales. 


We must not indeed conceive so meanly of God, 
as if he were charmed with the praises of his creat- 






118 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


ures, as some vain men are with popular applause. 
A wise man is above this—much more God. A 
man who knows himself, thinks neither the better 
nor worse of himself for popular praise or reproach. 
Praise is nothing else but the good opinion of other 
men concerning us, and reproach their ill opinion; 
and if they be mistaken in their opinions, they make 
us neither better nor worse.—Rev. William Sher¬ 
lock. 


(Jpbrbmurr 

If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of 
the land. Isaiah 1:39. 

Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the 
things which he suffered; And being made perfect, he 
became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that 
obey him. Heb. 5:8-9. 


Love makes obedience easy. 


The cure for infidelity is obedience.—Chas. F. 
Deems. 


Obedience is enjoined by the eternal law of nature. 
—Matthew Henry. 


When a soul is dead to God there is neither grati¬ 
tude nor obedience.—Adam Clarke. 


Jesus, our divine pattern, “became obedient unto 
death even the death of the cross.” 


People often desire to be Christians, when they 
are wholly unwilling to be so.—Rev. C. G. Finney. 


God has linked these two things together, and no 









120 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


man can separate them—obedience and peace.—Rev. 
F. W. Robertson. 

There are three elements in obedience. 1, Do 
what we are bidden. 2. Do when we are bidden. 
3. Do it in love.—Rev. J. T. Logan. 


Worship is easier than obedience. Men are ever 
readier to serve the priest than to obey the prophet. 
—Rev. A. M. Fairbairn. 


The blood of Christ is the only purchase of eternal 
life, but obedience to Christ is the appointed way 
to it.—Matthew Henry. 


The love of Christ is the proper ground of our 
obedience; and our obedience, the proper effect, 
and the sure test, of our love for Christ.—Rev. 
Whately. 


Three hnd only three motives to obedience— 
interest, fear, lov-e. (1) The obedience of the hire¬ 
ling—interest. (2) Of the slave—fear, (3) Of the 
child—love.—Bersier. 


True obedience to God is the obedience of faith 
and good works; that is, he is truly obedient to God 
who trusts Him and does His commandments.— 
Martin Luther. 


In our obedience in small things, we prove our 











OBEDIENCE 


121 


real character, for in great things we may fear the 
result and act from this motive.—Sel. 


The dying advice of Louis IV, King of France, 
to his daughter, Isabelle was, “In what is contrary 
to the glory of God, you owe obedience to 00110.” 


If, from regard to God’s Sabbath, I deny myself, 
He will more than make it up to me. In keeping 
God’s \statutes there is great reward.—Henry 
Martvn. 


The child that has never learned to obey in the 
home will most likely be disobedient to the laws of 
the state. It bespeakes an evil nature and an unruly 
spirit in any child, to be disobedient to its parent 
“in the Lord.”—Rev. L. M. Zimmerman. 


Man is under infinite obligations to obey God. 
If man’s obligation to obey God is infinite, the guilt 
of disobeying Him is infinite, and if the guilt of 
disobeying Him is infinite, the penalty, as a matter 
of right, is infinite.—Rev. W. E. Munsey. 


Like Saul, many boast of their obedience to the 
command of God; but what means then their in¬ 
dulgence of the flesh, their love of the world, their 
passion and uncharitableness, and their neglect of 
holy duties which witness against them?—Matthew 
Henry. 







122 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


Obedience is superior to knowledge, because 
knowledge alone is positively criminal. How vast 
the dishonor done to God, when with a perfect 
knowledge of duty, with a complete acquaintance 
with the Divine will, the man is neglectful of his 
privilege and refuses the obedience which of right 
he owes to God.—Sel. 


In I Samuel 15:22 we are plainly told that hum¬ 
ble, sincere, and conscientious obedience to the will 
of God, is more pleasing and acceptable to Him 
than burnt-offerings and sacrifices. A careful con¬ 
formity to moral precepts recommends us to God 
more than all ceremonial observances. Obedience 
was the law of innocency, but sacrifice supposes 
sin came into the world and is but a feeble attempt 
to take that aw r ay which obedience would have pre¬ 
vented.—Matthew Henry. 


Simntxvts 

To bring the soul into full subjection and obe¬ 
dience to God, you should remember, (1) The un¬ 
questionable plenary title that God hath to the 
government of you and all the world. (2) That God 
is perfectly fit for this government. (3) That you 
are unable and unfit to be governors of yourselves. 
(4) How great a matter God makes of His kingly 
prerogatives and of man’s obedience. (5) The ex¬ 
cellency of full obediences, and the present bene¬ 
fits it brings to yourselves and others. (6) The sad 




OBEDIENCE 


123 


effects of disobedience even at present both in the 
soul and in the world. (7) That when God doth 
not govern you, you are ruled by the flesh, the 
world and the devil. (8) What obedience is expect¬ 
ed by men, and what influence government hath 
upon the state and affairs of the world, and what 
the world would be without it. (9) Of the endless 
rewards and punishments by which God wflll pro¬ 
cure obedience to His laws, or vindicate the honor 
of His government.—Richard Baxter. 


ffcar? 

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you. John 
14:27. 

Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing 
shall offend them. Psalm 119:165. 


Christ’s peace is his last, his best, his dying leg¬ 
acy.—Adam Clarke. 


There is no peace to them that resist God. Peace 
of soul consists in an absolute resignation to the 
will of God.—Francis Fenelon. 


To his followers Jesus gives peace, procures it, 
preserves it, and establishes it. He is the author, 
prince, promoter, and keeper of peace.—Adam 
Clarke. 


The man who has not peace in himself cannot get 
peace from circumstances. Place him where you 
will, he carries an unquiet heart along with him. 
—Ibid. 


Peace with God is the union that comes from 
reconciliation. The peace of God is the union that 
comes from communion. We cannot have the 








PEACE 


125 


peace of God until after we have peace with God. 
—Sel. 


The “peace of God” is a tide of joy which shall 
never know an ebb, and is rolled into the Lord’s 
redeemed by his infinite love, and is sustained, with 
unabating fullness by His omnipotent [power.— 
Ambrose Serle. 


Peace is put for reconciliation and love; the peace 
bequeathed is peace with God, peace .with one an¬ 
other; peace in our bosoms seems to be especially 
meant; a tranquility of mind arising from a sense 
of our justification before God.—Matthew Henry. 


The heavenly host at the annunciation of “Beth- 
lehrm’s babe” said, “Glory to God in the highest, 
and on earth peace, good will toward men.” The 
“Prince of Peace” brings domestic peace, civil 
peace, ecclesiastical peace, spiritual peace, and etern¬ 
al peace. 


Christ keeps that heart in peace in which he dwells 
and rules. This peace passeth all understanding; 
it is of a very different nature from all that can 
arise from human occurrences; it is a peace which 
Christ has purchased, and which God dispenses.— 
Adam Clarke. 


Christ’s perfections and attributes are insepar¬ 
able from and coeval with himself. Consequently, 







126 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


the peace of which he is the Prince is an infinite 
and perpetual peace. Thus Christ, in comforting 
his disciples, says, “ Peace, I leave with you, my 
peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth 
(for a moment) give I unto you.”—Ambrose Serle. 


The peace of God fills the soul with constant, even 
tranquility. Lord, evermore give us this peace! 
How serenely may we pass through the most tur¬ 
bulent scenes of life, when all is quiet and harmo¬ 
nious within! Thou hast made peace through the 
blood of thy cross. May we give all diligence to 
preserve the inestimable gift inviolate till it issue 
in everlasting peace!—Rev. Joseph Benson. 


There is “no peace for the wicked/* and without 
peace of what value 1 are all his gains and pleasures? 
But peace, which is beyond the reach of the proud¬ 
est impenitent sinner, is the inheritance of the weak¬ 
est believer in Christ. It is given to him the moment 
he believes, as a legacy bequeathed him by the last 
will and testament of the Lord Jesus Christ. “Peace 
I leave wfith you, my peace I give unto you,”—Rev. 
Daniel Wise. 


To live in a state of peace with one’s neighbors, 
friends, and even family, is often very difficult. 
But the man who loves God, must labor after this, 
for it is indispensably necessary even for his own 
sake. A man can not have broils and misunder¬ 
standings with others without having his own peace 





PEACE 


127 


very materially disturbed; he must to be happy, 
be at peace with all men, whether they will be at 
peace with him or not.—Adam Clarke. 


Hrflrrttmtfi 

The essential characteristics of peace are, (1) Real 
peace; not the delusive calm of a hollow truce, nor 
the deceitful tranquility of stolid indifference and 
thoughtless apathy. (2) Great peace, (Psalm 119: 
165) the peace which is great in its foundation, its 
author, its effects: (3) Abundant peace (Jer 33:6), 
flowing in many channels, and filling the heart 
“with all joy and peace in believing.’* (4) Abiding 
peace, (John 14:27) secure and certain, a peace that 
lives independently of circumstances. (5) Incom¬ 
prehensible peace, (Phil. 4:7) not only to the men 
of this world, but to the saints of God themselves.— 
Rev. G. S. Bowers. 



$lrapr 

Men ought always to pray and not to faint. Luke 18:1. 

In every thing by prayer and supplication with thanks¬ 
giving, let your requests be made known unto God. Phil. 4:6. 


Prayer is the common language of dependence 
and want.—T. K. Doty. 


There is no higher kind of service than to pray 
well. 


Prayer is essentially a work of faith, not of sight 
and of feeling.—Clement C. Cary. 


Like Elijah’s, do your prayers bring fire down 
to consume the sacrifice or rain to refresh the land 1 
—H. L. Hastings. 


Prayer is a solemn addressing of our minds to 
God, as the Fountain of being and happiness, the 
Ruler of the world, and the Father of the family of 
men.—Richard Watson. 


Prayer is humbling work, it abases intellect and 
pride, crucifies vain glory, and signs our spiritual 








PRAYER 


129 


bankruptcy, and all these are hard for flesh and 
blood to bear.—Rev. M. E. Bounds. 


True prayer is the vehemency of holy zeal, the 
ardor of divine love, arising from a calm undisturbed 
soul moved upon by the Spirit of God. Intercession 
is prayer for others.—John Wesley. 


One might as well rush into battle unarmed be¬ 
cause he has had no time to secure his weapons, as 
to go forth to the experiences of the day without 
taking time to pray.—C. H. Spurgeon. 


The heart in which the true love of God and true 
desire exist, never ceases to pray. Love in the 
bottom of the soul, prays without ceasing, even when 
the mind is drawn another way.—Fenelon. 


Martin Luther, besides his constant reading of 
the word of God, did not pass a day without devot¬ 
ing three hours at least to prayer and they were 
hours selected from those the most favorable to 
study.—D. Aubigne. 


God’s delays in answering prayer are not denials. 
He never delays the answer without a sufficient 
reason, which may be in the one who prays, or in 
the nature of the prayer offered, or in the complex 
system of which we are a part.—Select. 


Emma Booth said, “I remember how my mother 


i 








130 


CHKISTIAN THOUGHTS 


would gather us around her and pray for us, and 
her hot tears would often drop upon my neck, send¬ 
ing a thrill through me, which I can never forget.’’ 


Be daily on your knees, in solemn devotion, pray¬ 
ing for others in such forms, with such length, im¬ 
portunity, and earnestness, as you use for yourself; 
and you will find all little, ill-natured passions die 
away, your heart grow great and generous, delight¬ 
ing in the common happiness of others, as you used 
only to delight in your own.—William Law. 


It is our privilege and honor that we pray. It is 
our duty; we ought to pray, and sin if we neglect 
it. It is to be our constant work; we ought always 
to pray, it is that which the duty of every day re¬ 
quires. We must pray and never grow weary of pray¬ 
ing nor think of leaving it off till it comes to be 
swallowed up in everlasting praise.—Matthew Hen¬ 
ry- 


Comment on Luke 18:1-8. The worst we think 
of the judge, the more encouragement does the para¬ 
ble contain—the stronger the argumeoit becomes 
for unwearied persistency in prayer. If a bad man 
will yield to the mere force of importunity which he 
hates, how much more certainly will a righteous 
God be prevailed on by the faithful prayer which 
he loves.—Trence. 


The first ray of light that broke in upon the mid- 






PRAYER 


131 


night which rested on the churches in Oneida County, 
in the fall of 1825, was from the prayers of a woman 
in feeble health, who, T believe, had never been in 
a powerful revival. Her soul was exercised about 
sinners. She was in agony for the land. She did not 
know what ailed her, but she kept praying more 
and more, till it seemed as if her agony would de¬ 
stroy her body. At length she became full of joy 
and exclaimed, “God has come! God has come! 
There is no mistake about it, the work is to begin, 
and is going all over the region/ ’ Her family were 
almost all converted and the work spread all over 
that part of the country. She knew she had pre¬ 
vailed with God in prayer. She had travailed in 
the birth for souls, and she knew it.—Chas. G. 
Finney. 


llraB*rsi 

1st, “If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord 
will not hear me.” Ps. 66:18. This applies to heart 
sins such as the harboring of old grudges, preju¬ 
dices, party feelings, family troubles, etc. If it is 
not this it may be pride and rebellion of heart which 
keeps you from making a needed apology, confes¬ 
sion, or restitution to some injured one. 

2nd. “He that turneth away his ear from hearing 
the law even his prayer shall be an abomination.’’ 
Prov. 28:9. This applies to a person who after com¬ 
ing in contact with the uncompromising truth, turns 
away to a more popular ease-taking way. He may 



132 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


have bokom sins with which he is loath to part, viz: 
the secret society, tobacco, worldly-conformity, spir¬ 
itual-affinity, undivorced wife, sexual impurity, jeal¬ 
ousy or other like sins, hence he turns away his ear 
from hearing the law on that particular sin. 

3rd. “But let him ask in faith nothing wavering. 
For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven 
with the wind and tossed. For let not that man 
think he shall receive anything of the Lord.” Jas. 
1:6-7. It honors God to believe him. Nothing will 
drive darkness and discouragement away as quick¬ 
ly as to declare your faith in God. But how can 
one “ask in faith nothing wavering”? We answer, 
not until complete submission and surrender per¬ 
vades the heart.—E. E. Shelhamer. 


(Eimittifln uf iJjJmraUituj . 

1st. Entire dependence upon the merits and me¬ 
diation of the Lord Jesus Christ as the only ground 
for any claim of blessing. John 14:13; 15:16. 


2nd. Separation from all known sin, otherwise 
it would be sanctioning sin. Ps. 66 :18. 


3rd. Faith in God's Word of promise as con¬ 
firmed by his oath. Not to believe him is to make 
him both a liar and a perjurer. Heb. 11; 13:20. 


4th. Asking in accordance with His will. Our 
motives must be godly; we must not seek any gift 






PRAYER 


133 


of God to consume it upon our lust. I John 4:14. 
James 4:3. 


5th. Importunity in supplication. There must 
be waiting on God, and waiting for God, as the hus¬ 
bandman has long patience to wait for the harvest. 
Jas. 5 :7.—George Muller. 


grripture 

Prayer: 

What is it? Ps. 84:2; Isai. 19:20; Luke 18:38; 
Heb. 4:16. 

Offer to God. Ps. 5 :2; Matt. 6 :9 ; Acts 12:5; 
Acts 16 :25. 

In Jesus’ Name. John 14:13; 15:16; 16:23; Eph. 
5:20; Col. 3:17. 

Aid of Holy Spirit. Zech. 12:10; Rom. 8:26; Eph. 
6:18; Jude 20. 

Duty enjoined. Ps. 62:8; Isai. 55:6; Jer. 29:12; 
Phil 4:6. 

Continuance in, Luke 18:1; Rom. 12:12; Col. 
4:2; I Thes 5:17. 

Assurance of answer. Ps. 50:15; Isai. 65:24; 
Matt. 7:7-8; John 15:7. 




$rti* 

God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. 
James 4:6, 

Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to 
the Lord: though hand join in hand, he shall not be un¬ 
punished. Prov. 16:5. 

Pride is a false estimate of one’s self. 


Self-respect is neither vanity nor pride. 


Pride is the mother of envy.—Rev. John A Ben gel. 


Pride in professed humility, proud in that it is not 

I 

proud.—Sel. 


Offended pride is one of the most active princi¬ 
ples of human nature.—D’Aubigne. 


Pride of intellect has ever been the hardest barrier 
against the truth.—John Eadie. 


Pride loves to climb up, not as Zaccheus to see 
Christ, but to be seen himself.—Gurnell. 


A heart full of pride is but a vessel full of air; 










PRIDE 


135 


this self-opinion must be blown out of us before 
•aving knowledge can be poured into us.—Adams. 


Pride, that odious vice which feeds on the praises 
it slyly procures, lives by the applause it has mean¬ 
ly courted, and is equally stabbed by the reproof 
of a friend and the sneer of a foe.—Rev. John 
Fletcher. 


Pride lives on the petty pre-eminences which here 
for a little lift one mortal an inch or two higher 
than another, an extra handful of gold, a better edu¬ 
cation, a longer pedigree, a title, or official distinc¬ 
tion.—Oswald Dykes. 

No people have more occasion to be afraid of the 
approaches of pride, than those who have made some 
advances in a pious life: for pride can grow as well 
upon our virtues as our vices, and steal upon us on 
all occasions.—William Law. 


A proud man is peculiarly odious in the sight of 
God; and in the sight of reason how absurd! A 
sinner, a fallen spirit—an heir of wretchedness and 
corruption, proud! Proud of what? Of an indwell¬ 
ing devil! Well, such persons shall be plentifully 
rewarded. They shall get their due, their whole 
due, and nothing but their due.—Adam Clarke. 

There is no other vice that is more deeply rooted 
in our nature, nor that receives such constant nour- 







136 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


ishment from almost everything that we think or do 
than pride. There being hardly anything in the 
world that we want or use or any action or duty of 
life, but pride finds some means or other to take hold 
of it. So that what time soever we begin to offer 
ourselves to God, we can hardly be surer of any¬ 
thing, than that we have a great deal of pride to 
repent of.—William Law. 


SUfterlinttfi 

The worst charge we have to bring against pride 
is, enmity to God; setting up idols where He alone 
should reign, and breeding in us envies, strifes, 
malice, things worthy of death. The varieties of 
pride are endless, the four chief ones are, (l)Race 
pride—pride in our ancestors. (2) Face pride— 
pride in one’s outward appearance. (3) Place pride 
—pride in your position in society. (4) Grace pride 
—pride in godliness. 


Be not proud. Jer. 13:15. 

“Be not proud, ’’for we have nothing to be proud 
of. “But by the grace of God I am what I am.” 

“Be not proud,” because it is abhorrent to God. 

“God resisteth the proud.” 

“Be not proud,” because it is ruinous. “Pride 
goeth before destruction.” 

“Be not proud,” because it is unlike Christ. “I 
am meek and lowly in heart.”—Rev. James Bolton. 




SUtompttmt 

For the redemption of their soul is precious. Ps. 49:8. 

Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with 
corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain con¬ 
versation received by tradition from your fathers. But 
with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blem¬ 
ish and without spot. I Peter 1:18-19. 


Redemption is the act of setting free a captive, 
by paying a ransom or redemption price. 


Redemption was secured at the cheapest possible 
cost to us but at the greatest possible cost to God. 


All our temporal blessings whether of food and 
raiment, or of health and strength, are the- effect 
of redemption.—Rev. J. Edmondson. 


Redemption shows sin as worse than we should 
* ever have known it to be. It is the Divine measure 
of its greatness.—Rev. N. R. Wood. 


By redemption, God is honored; man is rescued; 
the channels of mercy are opened; and everlasting 
life is freely offered to every soul of man.—Rev. 
J. Edmondson. 







138 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


The real value of an object is that which one who 
knows its worth will give for it. He who made the 
soul, knew its worth, and gave His life for it.— 
Jackson. 


In the redemptive system of God, the sinner must 
be saved or lost, he cannot exist in the system an 
unredeemed and unpunished sinner, and the system 
survive.—Rev. W. E. Munsey. 


No magistrate has ever lived who would have 
been willing to sentence his own son to the gallows 
in place of the guilty wretch, whom it was his duty 
to sentence to death.—Barnes. 


The life, death, resurrection, ascension and inter¬ 
cession of Christ, are all more or less necessary to 
the perfection of redemption in its totality, as an 
effectual scheme for the salvation of sinners.—Rev. 
W. E. Munsey. 


The Hebrew word for Redeemer signifies a near 
kinsman, who redeems the lost inheritance of his 
brother, vindicates his character, avenges his 
wrongs, and delivers him from his enemies.—Rev. 
J. Edmundson. 


Day of redemption! Glorious day! From it 
every other day borrows its value. Immortal day! 
It will be remembered by the servants forever, and 







REDEMPTION 


139 


will be our sweetest theme of converse when we get 
home.—Rev. W. E. Munsey. 


Through the redemption of Jesus, our enemies 
will be finally conquered; death will be swallowed 
up in victory; and our Lord will “destroy him that 
hath the power of death, that is, the devil.’’ Heb. 
2:14.—Rev. J. Edmondson. 


Christ as God-man was alone able to pay the price 
of human redemption which did not consist of cor¬ 
ruptible things” but of “precious blood” and im¬ 
maculate righteousness, on account of which, as 
well as for the sake of his person, Jehovah declared 
himself “well pleased.”—Ambrose Serle. 


There are two things required in a redeemer: 
first, the act of paying a sum, and telling it over 
the board (as fairly) to the creditor. Secondly, 
the sum must be his own: for if he pay a ransom 
with another man’s gold, the man who owned the 
gold is rather the ransomer than he.—Samuel Ruth¬ 
erford. 


The death of a mere human nature could not 
redeem fallen millions from a deserved temporal, 
spirilual and eternal death. This could only be 
done by uniting the human nature with an infinitely 
Divine nature, so that acts of each nature would be 
the acts of one and the same person. Such a nature 
had Christ—Rev. W. E. Munsey. 






140 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


Every legal and philosophic condition involved in 
the nature of God, His attributes, system, Govern¬ 
ment, and law, in the nature of man, man’s relations 
and condition, and in the nature of things necessary 
to a perfect redemption, were fully met in the nature 
character, work, sufferings and death of Jesus.— 
Rev. W. E. Munsey. 


When God chose that costliest means of our de¬ 
liverance, sending His own Son in the likeness of 
sinful flesh and for sin, we may be quite sure that 
at no lower price would our redemption have been 
possible, that nothing short of this could have satis¬ 
fied that righteousness of His, which he was bound 
to maintain.—Trench. 


Jlluatratton 

Suppose a man is lying under sentence of death! 
Shrinking from the gallows-tree, he has sent off a 
petition for mercy and waits with anxious suspence. 
One day a messenger enters with his fate, the ans¬ 
wer is that the soverign pities the criminal, but 
cannot pardon the crime. The criminal’s hopes are 
gone, he wrings his hands and gives himself up for 
lost. And now the messenger lays his hand kindly 
on the poor felon’s shoulder and tells him there is 
one way by which he may yet be saved—if the 
king’s son would change places with him, put these 
fetters of his on his own limbs and die in his room, 
that would satisfy justice and set him free. The 




REDEMPTION 


141 


king give up his son! the prince royal, the heir of 
the kingdom consent to die for a poor guilty wretch 
like me, if there is no hope but that there is no 
hope at all! Now fancy if you can, his astonishment, 
his joy, his gratitude, when the messenger says, “I 
am the king’s son; it is my own wish and my father’s 
will, that I should die for you; for that purpose 
have I come, have I left the palace, and sought you 
in this dreary prison; take you the pardon and give 
me the fetters. In me shall the crime be punished 
and the criminal be saved. Escape! Behold I set 
before you an open door.”—Guthrie. 


2Url|?0 

A rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. 
Matt. 

But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received 
your consolation. Luke 6: 24. 


The rich are indeed rather possessed by their 
money, than possessors.—Sel. 


“I am rich, and increased with goods, and have 
need of nothing.’’—The Laodicean Church. 


None can gain by swallowing up his neighbor’s 
substance without gaining the damnation of hell. 
—John Wesley. 


Somebody has said that getting riches brings 
care; keeping them brings trouble; abusing them 
brings guilt; and losing them brings sorrow. 


To be rich is in general a great misfortune: but 
what rich man can be convinced of this? It is only 
God himself who, by a miracle of mercy, can do it. 
—Adam Clarke. 


The opportunity was once offered me to become 










RICHES 


143 


rich, but I am glad that I chose the succession of 
Lazarus. If I have money enough to bury me I 
do not know it.—Rev. W. B. Godbey. 


Men love wealth, seek it in every possible way, 
and hold it fast. The grand cause is unbelief. God 
has promised to reward the liberal; but who believes 
him?—Rev. J. Edmondson. 


A covetous man is never the better for his riches, 
because he cannot use them; and a voluptuous man 
is much the worse, because he uses them to his own 
hurt.—Rev. William Sherlock. 


We fear it is a hindrance rather than a help for a 
minister of the gospel to handle or own much money. 
As a rule, riches and the power of the Holy Ghost 
do not go hand in hand.—Rev. E. E. Shelhamer. 


Others can double their money on real estate in a 
few days, but this kind of success has ruined more 
than one good man, and God has loved me too well 
to let it come my way.—Rev. E. E. Shelhamer. 


A rich man is a man who gets all he can, saves all 
he can, and keeps all he has gotten. Speak, reason! 
speak conscience!—for God has already spoken— 
Can such a person enter into the kingdom of God! 
No!—Adam Clarke. 


It is very rare for a man to be rich, and not to 








144 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 






set his heart upon his riches; and it is utterly im¬ 
possible for a man that sets his heart upon his rich¬ 
es to get to heaven, for, “if a man love the world 
the love of the Father is not in him.”—Matthew 
Henry. 


When our Lord came to redeem the world he chose 
to take his place among the poorest of the earth. 
What greater privilege can there be than to share 
his lot, although like all other forms of discipline, 
for the present “it is not joyous but grievious.”?— 
Sel. 


Riches put out the eyes, harden the heart, steal 
away all the life of God; fill the soul with pride, 
anger, love of the world; make men enemies to the 
whole cross of Christ! And all the while are 
eagerly desired, and vehemently pursued, even by 
those who believe there is a God!—John Wesley. 


God shows us what is His estimate of riches, 
first by what He says about them: “A man’s life 
consisteth not in the abundance of the things which 
he possesseth,” and, secondly in the condition in 
which He permitted His own Son to enter and pass 
through this world. “Foxes have holes and the 
birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath 
not where to lay His head.”—Rev. A. T. Pierson. 


If I be asked, “Should Christian parents lay up 
money for their children?” I answer: It is the duty 






RICHES 


145 


of every parent, who can, to lay up what is necessary 
to put every child in a condition to earn its bread. 
If he neglects this, he undoubtedly sins against God 
and nature. “But should not a man lay up, besides 
this, a fortune for his children, if he can honestly?” 
I answer: Yes if there be no poor within his reach; 
no good work which he can assist; no heathen 
region on the earth to which he can contribute to 
send the Gospel of Jesus; but not otherwise.— 
Adam Clarke. 


A king walking out one morning, met a lad, at 
the stable door, and asked him, “Well boy, what 
do you do? what do they pay you?” “I help in the 
stable,” replied the lad; “but I have nothing ex¬ 
cept victuals and clothes.” “Be content,” replied the 
king, “I have no more. All that the richest possess 
beyond food, raiment, and habitation, they have but 
the keeping of, or the disposing of, not the present 
enjoyment of.”—Sel. 


SffUrlxmtB 

The affluently rich, full of sensuality, and pamp¬ 
ered with the good things of this life, are only occu¬ 
pied with what they shall eat; what they shall 
drink, how" they shall amuse and sport themselves, 
and wherewithal they shall be clothed according 
to the endless changes in fantastic flippery fashions; 
are too busy or too brutally happy to attend to the 
call of the Gospel; and because it would break in 




146 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


upon their gratifications they hate religion, despise 
a crucified Savior and the men who proclaim saU 
vation through his name alone.—Adam Clarke. 


As I approach the end I am more than a little 
puzzled to account for the instances of business suc¬ 
cess, money getting. It comes from rather a low in¬ 
stinct. Certainly, so far as my observation goes, 
it is rarely met with in combination with the finer 
or more interesting traits of character. I have 
known, know tolerably well, a good many “suc¬ 
cessful” men—“big” financially—men famous dur¬ 
ing the last half century, and a less interesting 
crowd I do not care to encounter. Not one that I 
have ever known would I care to meet again, either 
in this world or the next; nor is one of them asso¬ 
ciated in my mind with the idea of humor, thought, 
or refinement. A set of mere money-getters and 
traders, they were essentially unattractive and un¬ 
interesting.—Charles F. Adams. 




^rripturps 

And the scripture cannot be broken. John 10:35. 

All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profit¬ 
able for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction 
in righteousness. II Timothy 3:16. 


I know the Bible is inspired because it inspires 
me.—D. L. Moody. 


Without revealed Truth, reason has no data, faith 
is false and conscience is corrupt.—J. B. Walker. 


The Bible does not so much need a comment, as the 
soul does the light of the Holy Spirit.—Adam Clarke. 


How unspeakably indebted we are to God for 
the Scriptures, a revelation to us of his will and of 
his works.—Adam Clarke. 


How strange an errand hath the Gospel in the 
world, to transform men and make them like God. 
—Rev. John Howe. » 


The law is the key which shuts up all men under 
condemnation, and the gospel is the key which 
opens the door and lets them out.—Tyndale. 








148 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


The written word is a divine message, the in¬ 
carnate Word is a divine person. We shall never 
enjoy the one apart from the other.—J. Hudson Tay¬ 
lor, 


Far be it of me ever to read or preach the Word 
of the Lord as a judge of it, but rather as a criminal 
justly condemned by it; but redeemed through it. 

Francis Asbury when ordaining a brother, lift¬ 
ed up a Bible and powerfully said, “This is the min¬ 
ister’s battle-ax, this is his sword, take this and 
conquer. ’ ’ 


The witness of the Spirit is a proof of the inspir¬ 
ation of Scripture, supplied by the testimony which 
the Holy Ghost Himself conveys to each reader of 
the Scripture.—Rev. J. H. Blunt, 


The sacred Scriptures, inspired by His unerring 
Spirit point out the duties of man in a way that can¬ 
not be misunderstood. There we learn what is right 
in all cases.—Rev. J. Edmondson. 


It is not the profession of a doctrine that estab¬ 
lishes its truth; it is the truth of God from which it 
has proceeded. Man’s experience may illustrate it; 
but it is God’s truth that confirms it.—Adam Clarke. 


George Muller’s directions for reading the Bible, 
1. Read the Scriptures regularly through. 2. Read 









SCRIPTURE 


149 


with Prayer. 3. Read with Meditation. 4. Read 
with Reference to Yourself. 5. Read with Faith. 
6. Read in Order to Carry into Practice. 


The Scripture was divinely inspired, not merely 
while it was written, God breathing through the 
writers, but also while it is being read, God breath¬ 
ing through the Scripture, and the Scripture breath¬ 
ing him.—John A. Beugel. 


The Bible is a light to guide us, a sword to fight 
our battles, a mirror to reveal us to ourselves, 
bread and meat to nourish us, and water to refresh 
us. How foolish of men to seek its destruction since 
it is the living Word.—Rev. I. F. McLeister. 


When Martin Luther was 20 years old, he found 
in the library at Erfurth a Bible. He had never 
until this hour seen a Bible. His soul could hardly 
contain the joy it felt while he read the sacred 
pages. “Oh, that God would give me such a book for 
myself,’’ thought he.—D. Aubigne. 


Many of the difficulties and obscurities of tha 
Bible, rise wholly from the fact that the will of the 
student is not surrendered to the will of the author 
of the book. Truth obeyed leads to more truth. 
Truth disobeyed destroys the capacity for discover¬ 
ing truth.—Rev. R. A. Torrey. 


It is an honor to the gospel when it is despised 







150 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


by a Julian, or a Shaftesbury, by a Lucian or a Vol¬ 
taire: their scoffs are fulfilments of the Scriptures, 
and, before they existed, were foretold. Themselves, 
without meaning it, gave sad yet convincing proofs 
of its divine authority.—Ambrose Serle. 


I have sometimes seen more in a line of the 
Bible, than I could well tell how to stand under: 
and yet at another time the whole Bible hath been 
to me as a dry stick; or rather, my heart hath been 
so dead and dry unto it, that I could not conceive 
the least dram of refreshment though I have looked 
it all over.—John Bunyon. 


What are our Bibles good for if we do not lay 
hold on their precious promises, and use them as 
the ground of our faith when we pray for the bless¬ 
ing of God? You had better send your Bible to the 
heathen where they will do some good, if you are not 
going to believe and use them.—Rev. C. G. Finney. 

No mere knowledge of the human language in 
which the Bible was written, however extensive and 
accurate it may be, will qualify one to understand 
and appreciate the Bible. One must understand 
the divine language in which it was written as well, 
the language of the Holy Spirit.—Rev. R. A. Torrey. 


Infidels urge, as a reason why I should reject the 
Bible, that I cannot understand every statement in 
it. Very much indeed is made of this argument; 








SCRIPTURE 


151 


but the practical benefits which the Scriptures con¬ 
vey to the earnest Christian, prove that incidental 
difficulties which appeal to the intellect do not pre¬ 
vent the Word from nourishing the believer.—Ibid. 


iSrflrrttnttfi 

There is that in the Scripture which suits every 
case. Whatever duty we have to do, whatever 
service is required of us, we may find enough in the 
Scriptures to furnish us for it. 0 that we may 
love our Bibles more, and keep closer to them than 
ever before! and then shall we find the benefit and 
advantage designed thereby, and at last attain the 
happiness therein promised and assured us.—Mat¬ 
thew Henry. 

None is so keen in finding difficulties in Scrip¬ 
ture as those who have no desire that it should be 
found true. There is left in the Bible a sufficiency of 
stumbling blocks whereon, in righteous retribution, 
all such as lack childlike docility and humility are 
allowed to stumble. To all those who sincerely and 
humbly desire to do God’s will, seeming discrep¬ 
ancies prove no stumbling block.—Rev. A. R. Faus- 
set. 




The soul that sinneth, it shall die. Ezek. 18:20. 

Sin is the transgression of the law. I John 3:4. 

All unrighteousness is sin. I John 5:17—Therefore to him 
that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. 
James 4:17. 


Sin is an infinite evil.—Jonathan Edwards. 


If a man be not ashamed of his sins, he shall be 
put to shame by them.—Sel. 


Oh, weep for sin! and all other tears shall be 
wiped away.—Rev. R. A. Griffin. 


It is sin alone that makes the great difference 
betwixt an angel and a devil.—William Law. 


We must judge the guiltiness of our sins by try¬ 
ing to view them as God views them.—Dean Farrar. 


I preach and think that it is more bitter to sin 
against Christ than to suffer the torments of hell. 
—Chrysostom. 


Sin is an adder which may be fondled in your 









SIN 


153 


bosom £or a time, but it stingeth afterward.— 
Dean Farrar. 


Sin has darkened the mind, perverted the judg¬ 
ment, debased the passions, and turned the soul from 
God.—Sel. 


Sin has no limit, no mercy, and always brings 
misery. It is first a pleasure, then a necessity, and 
last a torture.—Lillie B. Swimea. 


Man by reason of sin, original and actual, has 
become both guilty and polluted, is under condemn¬ 
ation and possessed of inbred corruption.—Rev. 
J. A. Wood. 


Sin is any lack of holiness, any defect of moral 
purity and truth, whether in heart or life, whether 
of commission or ommission.—J. C. Femall. 

If sin be a trivial offense, then the penalty is un¬ 
just, and the atonement extravagant, but being oth¬ 
erwise, we see the enormity of sin. 

The sinner at death goes to the abode of the lost, 
because he is a sinner and because his sinful char¬ 
acter properly places him here.—Sel. 

This is the true genealogy of sin and death. Lust 
is the mother of sin, and sin the mother of death; 
and the sinner is the parent of both.—MacKnight. 









154 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


Continued sin is the ground of continued pun¬ 
ishment; eternal sin and eternal sinning are alone 
the ground of eternal punishment.—Sel. 


Notice the progressive nature of sin: Cain rejects 
Christ; then he envies his brother; then hates his 
brother; then quarreled with him; then slew him; 
then denied it.—Rev. W. E. Munsey. 


Sin has changed innocence into guilt; joy into 
sorrow; happiness into grief; angels into devils, 
and man’s abode in heaven to an abode in hell. 


Sin is like a river in its course; the longer it runs 
it wears a deeper channel and the farther from the 
fountain it swells in volume and acquires greater 
strength.—Guthrie. 


While sin remains, it is fit it should be punished. 
If wickedness always remain in the nature of man, 
is it not fit the rod should always remain on the 
back of man?—Charnock. 


Sin is threefold in its character—having a princ¬ 
iple, essence and development. The principle of sin 
is unbelief in God, the essence of sin is enmity to 
God, the development of sin is disobedience to God. 
—Rev. W. E. Munsev. 

w 


The deformed diseased or crippled body will die 
and be forever put out of sight under the ground, 








SIN 


155 


but a soul eternally ruined by sin, will stalk forever 
among the ages an immortal mockery of the divine 
image.—J. S. Morgan. 


He, therefore, who denies a personal penalty (for 
sin) must, logically, deny vicarious penalty. If the 
sinner himself is not obliged by justice to suffer in 
order to satisfy the law he has violated, then, cer¬ 
tainly, no one needs suffer for him for this pur¬ 
pose.—W. G. T. Shedd. 


The best thing to do with our past sin, if it be 
indeed forgiven, is to bury it. If you ever do tell 
anybody about your youthful wrong-doing let it be 
with blushes and tears, and only to honor the In¬ 
finite Mercy which forgave you.—C. H. Spurgeon. 


The wages that sin bargains with the sinner are 
life, pleasure and profit; but the wages it pays 
him with are death, torment and destruction: he 
that would understand the falsehood and deceit of 
sin thoroughly must compare its promises and its 
payments together.—South. 


Srflerttntta 

Impenitence after sinning is a more determined 
form of sin, than sinning is in and of itself. A pen¬ 
itent sinner can be forgiven; but an impenitent sin¬ 
ner cannot be. The former God pities, and extends 
the offer of mercy to him. To the latter God holds 






156 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


out no hope, because he cannot.—William G. T. 
Shedd. 


Sin is the suicidal action of the human will. A 
man is not forced to kill himself, but if he does, he 
cannot bring himself to life again. And a man is 
not forced to sin, but if he does, he cannot of him¬ 
self go back where he was before sinning. He cannot 
go back to innocency, nor can he go back to holi¬ 
ness of heart.—William G. T. Shedd. 


There is a certain measure that God hath set to 
the sin of every wicked man. Sometimes when 
we see men go on to dreadful lengths, and become 
heinously wicked, we are ready to wonder that God 
lets them alone. He sees them go on in such audac¬ 
ious wickedness, and keeps silent, nor does anything 
to interrupt them, but they go smoothly on, and 
meet with no hurt. But when once they shall have 
filled up the measure of their sins, judgment will be 
executed; God will not bear with them any longer. 
He will come forth, not only in anger, but in the 1 
fierceness of his anger.—Jonathan Edwards. 


Sins—the sins of the world, the flesh, and the 
devil—degrade us into the animal: they unnerve, 
they effeminate, they debase, they paralyze; they 
make us care only for the momejit with its frivol¬ 
ous, passing pleasures; they bid us listen to the base 
pleadings of a miserable, hungry, shivering self, 
which is, like a crawling serpent, ever rustling amid 





SIN 


157 


the dead leaves of our weakened purposes, and ever 
hissing in our ears: “only this once.” “There is 
no harm in it.” “Thou shalt not surely die.” 
This is the explanation, and the only possible one, 
of the insane infatuation which so often marks 
either the whole lives or sudden actions of many 
men.—Dean Farrar. 


Extjartatum 

Reader, hast thou sin in thine heart or life? If 
so, give thyself no rest until thou hast found for¬ 
giveness, salvation and cleansing through the prec¬ 
ious Blood of Christ. God’s eternal aversion to sin 
will stand approved in that he gave his only begot¬ 
ten Son, to redeem us from all sin for all eternity. 






j^uhmtastmt 

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Jas. 4:7. 

For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and go¬ 
ing about to establish their own righteousness, have not 
submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. Rom. 
10:3. 


Anything less than submission to all the light we 
have is rebellion.—J. T. Logan. 


Whosoever willeth whatsoever ( God willeth, is 
pleased whatsoever happens.—DeRenty. 


I do not know but on the whole it has been a 
good thing that I have been blind.—Fanny Crosby. 


I have had many things in my hands, and I have 
lost them all; but whatsoever I have been able to 
place in God’s, I still possess.—Martin Luther. 


The first essential pre-requisite to Christian per¬ 
fection, and a leading charicteristic of it through¬ 
out, is a cheerful perfect submission to the will of 
God.—William Taylor. 


Genuine submission consists in perfect acquies- 








SUBMISSION 


159 


cence in all the providential dealings and dispensa¬ 
tions of God; whether relating to ourselves, or to 
others, or to the universe.—Rev. C. G. Finney. 

They who are God’s without reserve are in every 
state content; for they will only do what he wills 
and desire to do for Him whatever He desires them 
to do; they strip themselves of everything, and in 
their nakedness find all things restored an hun¬ 
dred fold.—Sel. 


One month before his death, after a long siege 
of illness, Joseph Cook wrote, 

11 Beware how you of pain complain, 

If God sends it then it is gain; 

In time or later thou shalt see 
How well He meant by pain, to thee.” 


Whenever, therefore, you find yourself disposed 
to uneasiness, or murmuring at anything that is 
the effect of God’s providence over us, you must 
look upon yourself as denying either the wisdom or 
goodness of God.—William Law. 


Resignation to the Divine will signifies a cheer¬ 
ful approbation, and thankful acceptance of every¬ 
thing that comes from God. It is not enough 
patiently to submit, but we must thankfully receive, 
and fully approve of everything, that by the order 
of God’s providence happens to us.—William Law. 






160 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


There is no sin in praying, “ Father, let this cup 
pass from me,” for so prayed our sinless Lord; but 
there would be sin in failing to say, “Father, not 
my will, but Thine, be done,” when the will of the 
Father that the cup should not pass from us is 
declared.—Rev. W. F. Hook. 


It was a just remark, which perhaps the ex¬ 
perience of every believer may more or less con¬ 
firm/‘That the surest way of obtaining any mercy 
from God is to be contented, if it be his pleasure, 
to go without it.” No mercy can come from him, 
but by his own will, in his own way, and in his own 
time. If a believer wish to have it sooner, he may 
find the rod for his impatience, but he must wait 
for the blessing.—Ambrose Serle. 


While we fret and repine at God’s will, do we not 
say in effect that it is better for us to have our own? 
That is, in other words, that we are wiser than God, 
and could contrive things much more to our ad¬ 
vantage if we had the disposal of them. These in¬ 
deed are things that no man utters in words: but 
whosoever refuses to submit himself to the hand of 
God speaks them aloud by his behavior.—South. 


Examples 

Rev. Benjamin Schmolck lost his wife and family 
by death, then he was stricken by paralysis and later 





SUBMISSION 


161 


lost his sight. Under this avalanche of afflictions, 
he composed the following hymn: 

My Jesus, as thou wilt: 

O may thy will be mine, 

Into thv hand of love 

4» 

I would my all resign. 


At the funeral of President Davies, his mother, 
an aged widow, came to take the last look at her 
son. She gazed intently upon him, the tears fell 
upon the face of the corpse as she bent over it, and 
then, retiring a single step as she still gazed upon 
him, she exclaimed, “There lies my only son; my 
only earthly comfort and earthly support. But 
there lies the will of God, and I am satisfied. ” Sor¬ 
row, tearful though it be, ought to be submissive. 
—Rev. I. S. Spencer. 



buffering 

If we suffer, we shall also reign with him. II Tim. 2:12. 

For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are 
not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be 
revealed in us. Eom. 8:18, 


The word compassion imports, a suffering with 
its object.—Dean Alford. 

Men will never become great in divinity until 
they become great in suffering.—C. H. Spurgeon. 


The whole work of saving men is a work of suf¬ 
fering from the beginning to the end.—Catherine 
Booth. 


In this world, none are exempt from suffering; 
the sinner suffers for his sins, the saint for righteous¬ 
ness ’ sake. 


Christ’s personal sufferings are over but His suf¬ 
ferings in His people will continue “till He come.” 
—Jas. H. Brooks. 


The sufferings of the saints are but the sufferings 
of this present time, and strike no deeper than 
the things of time.—Matthew Henry. 















SUFFERING 


163 


Those who suffered with David in his humiliation 
were preferred with him in his exaltation: so it will 
be with those who suffer with the Son of David.— 
Matthew Henry. 


The noblest crown ever worn by man or God was 
a crown of thorns. No human being has ever 

touched the height of his possible altitude until 

% 

he had pain.—Rev. Chas F. Deems. 


I am not sure but that when we get to right 
views on this matter, we may discover that suffer¬ 
ing borne bravely for Christ is nobler than work 
performed for him.—Rev W. M. Taylor. 


As song birds are taught new songs in darkened 
rooms, so we are often the better taught to sing 
the “new song” in the darkened chamber of sick¬ 
ness and sorrow.—Rev. L. M. Zimmerman. 


By suffering in the ways of righteousness, we are 
serving the interests of our Lord’s kingdom among 
men, and edifying the body of Christ; and our 
trials will brighten our graces now and our crown 
at last.—Matthew Henry. 


To “suffer with Him,” whatever reproach, in¬ 
famy, persecution, and other injuries we may be 
called to undergo, in conformity to him, for thei 
honor of God, and the testimony of a good con¬ 
science.—Rev. Joseph Benson. 







164 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


Many who think it was all right that the Master 
should be made “perfect through suffering” are 
unwilling to suffer with Him although they do want 
to be “glorified together” with Him.—L. M. Zimmer¬ 
man. 


The burden of suffering seems a tomb-stone hung 
around us while in reality it is only a weight nec¬ 
essary to keep down the diver while he is collecting 
pearls. (Note: Costliest pearls are found in deepest 
waters.)—Richer. 


The old refiner never left his crucible but sat down 
by it, lest there should be one excessive degree 
of heat to mar the metal, and so soon as, skimming 
from the surface the last of the dross, he saw his own 
face reflected he put out the fire. 


Never degrade your own or another’s suffering. 
The sufferers are the great ones of the earth. There 
is no strength so great as infirmities coming from 
God and borne for God; and nothing more truly 
Christ-like, or dignified than the struggles of a 
lifetime of sorrow and suffering for Jesus Christ’s 
sake.—Expositor’s Dictionary. 


God, in his wise designs, often permits his child¬ 
ren to pass through seasons of extreme and pro¬ 
tracted physical and soul suffering. And in their 
affliction they exhibit degrees of grace which were 






SUFFERING 


165 


not manifest under ordinary circumstances, and 
which perhaps could have been developed in no 
other way.—Rev. R. W. Hawkins. 


Though no man can absolutely choose suffering, 
for suffering is a natural evil, and therefore not 
the object of a free choice; yet men may choose 
suffering against the natural bias and inclination 
of their own wills in subjection to the will of God. 
The example of our Saviour, “Father if it be poss¬ 
ible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not 
my will, but thy will be done.” We do not and 
cannot choose sufferings, yet we choose that the will 
of God should be done, though it be to suffer.—Rev. 
William Sherlock. 


Broken bread and poured-out wine 
That thy portion heart of mine; 
Till the Bread of Life they see, 

Let men break their fast on thee. 

Ground to flour like garnered wheat, 
Mixed and kneaded, baked in heat 
So my life must be prepared 
In the ovens of the Lord. 

Only when the fruit is pressed 
Have we wine to give our guest; 




166 CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 

And we prove that love is strong, 

Only when love suffers long. 

Christ was Broken Bread for me, 

Oh, what joy, that I may be 
In His tender hands divine, 

Broken bread and poured-out wine. 

—Rev. D. Lambert. 



Sfcmptatum 

For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted he is 
able to succor them that are tempted. Heb. 2:18. 

Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when 
he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life which the 
Lord hath promised to them that love him. Jas. 1:12, 


Temptation is not sin but a solicitation to sin. 


Temptations are never so dangerous as when they 
come to us in a religious garb.—D. L. Moody. 


The higher the plane on which we live, the fiercer 
and more subtle will be the temptation—Rev. Geo. 
Shaw. 


Dally not with temptation. Do not, I beseech 
you, hazard the integrity of your character nor 
trifle with the purity of your thoughts.—Loraine. 


The history of temptation says Bede, is (1) Sug¬ 
gestion. (2) Delight. (3) Consent. Suggestion 
is from the enemy, delight and consent from our 
frailty. 


A sinful impression or suggestion resisted till it 








168 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


disappears is temptation, and only temptation, not 
sin. A sinful suggestion courted or torerated or at 
length complied with is sin.—Rev. J. A. Wood. 


“This is my beloved Son in whom I am well 
pleased,”—After this glorious evidence of his fath¬ 
er’s love he was completely armed for the combat 
(the temptation). Thus after the clearest light and 
strongest consolation, let us expect the sharpest 
temptation.—John Wesley. 


We find that in the Bible the word, “temptation” 
is used with two different meanings. Sometimes 
it simply means to “try;” sometimes to “entice.” 
The purpose in the one case (God’s part) being 
good, in the other (Satan’s part) evil.—Stanford. 


Only see to it that your temptations drive you 
all the closer to Him, and make you feel more than 
ever your dependence upon Him. Then shall the 
wilderness indeed become a fruitful field and the 
solitary place shall prove the house of God—the gate 
of heaven.—W. H. M. H. Aitken. 


Temptation is involved in the very idea of pro¬ 
bation. Temptation is one of the chief forces of the 
disciplinary system of this life; one of the mightest 
agencies in that great educational process by which 
the Parent Ruler of the spirits of all flesh seeks to 
qualify men for a life beyond life.—Loraine. 






\ 


TEMPTATION 169 

The greatest thing Satan aims at in tempting 
good people, is to overthrow their relation to God 
as a Father, and so to cut off their dependence on 
him, their duty to him, and their communion with 
him. Outward afflictions, wants and burdens are 
the great arguments Satan uses to make the people 
of God question their sonship.—Matthew Henry. 


Some have supposed that holiness implies freedom 
from temptation if not from trial. But this is not so, 
for the disciple is not above his Master. Any sav¬ 
ing grace is a preparation for trial and temptation; 
and all such grace be it regeneration or entire sanc¬ 
tification will be subjected to the fullest strains of 
this kind.—Sel. 


No man can know how much God can do for him 
until he has been exposed to trial, and made proof 
of the divine power to help and save. It is the 
moment of temptation that tests the reality of our 
religious profession, and distinguishes the genuine 
believer from the hollow professor, the man who 
is living in touch with God from the man whose re¬ 
ligion is only a memory of the past.—W. Hay M. H. 
Aitkin. 


A child once asked in his innocence, “ Why does not 
God kill the devil?” Yes, and so end all our temp¬ 
tations and trials. We shall have that question an- 





170 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


swered for us one day, but in the meantime, what 
if, instead of killing him, God should be using him? 
Will it not be the masterpiece of the divine work¬ 
man’s skill, if the very malignant hostilities of hell 
are found in the end to contribute to the sublime 
purposes of heaven; and if Satan himself may be 
proved to have helped all unawares to create that 
which he has been moving hell and earth to destroy. 
—W. Hay M. H. Aitken. 


grriptarr SUfmarw 

Temptation: 

Satan the enticer, I Chr. 21:1; Matt. 4:1; I Thess. 
3:5. 

To be resisted. Prov. 1:10-16; Eph. 6:11; Jas. 
4:7; I Peter 5:9. 

Benefits derived. Matt. 4:11; Jas. 1:2-3-12; I 
Peter 1:6-7. 

Jesus succors. I Cor. 10:13; Heb. 2:18; 4:15-16; 
Rev. 3:10. 











(Urtals 

The Lord trieth the righteous. Psalm 11:5. 

But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried 
me, I shall come forth as gold. Job 23:10. 

A trial may be to prove our insufficiency and God’s 
sufficiency. 


Trials always rub the chaff off the true Christian, 
but robs the hypocrite of courage.—Sel. 


Spices smell sweetest when pounded, vines are 
the better for bleeding, juniper smells sweetest in 
the fire.—Brooks. 


Remember that for all thy trials there is not only 
consolation in Christ, but also compensation.—Rev. 
George Shaw. 

It is only faith in God (tempered with love) that 
can enable a man to endure the trials of life.— 
Adam Clarke 


Often our trials act as a thorn hedge to keep 
us in the good pasture, but our prosperity is a gap 
through which we go astray.—Chas. Spurgeon. 


The faith of good men is tried that they them- 









172 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


selves may have the comfort of it. God the glory of 
it, and others the benefit of it.—Matthew Henry. 

The word *‘trial ’ 9 signifies an experiment !or 
search made upon a man, by some affliction, to prove 
the value and strength of his faith.—Matthew 
Henry. 


We are ever prone to expect results through the 
immediate operation of the Spirit; but in many 
instances they are wrought out by the more tedious 
process of trials.—Rev. R. W. Hawkins. 


God doth not take the axe into His hand to make 
chips. His people, when he is hewing them, and the 
axe goes deepest, may expect some beautiful piece 
at the end of the work.—Gurnhall. 


The righteous come out of trial as gold pure in 
itself and precious to its refiner. They shall come 
forth as gold approved and improved, found to be 
good and made to be better.—Matthew Henry. 


Human strength and human weakness are only 
names in religion. The mightiest man in the hour 
of trial, can do nothing without the strength of God: 
and the weakest woman can do all things in the 
strength of Christ.—A. Clarke. 


Trials put religion and all the graces of which it 
is composed to proof; the man who stands in such 








TRIALS 


173 


trials gives proof that his religion is sound and the 
evidence afforded to his own mind induces him to 
take courage, bear patiently, and persevere.—Adam 
Clarke. 


When Chas. Finney’s wife died, his sorrow was 
great. God said to him: “Did you love her for her 
sake or for your sake”? He said, “For her sake, 
Lord.” The Lord said, “Well, are you not glad 
that she is happy with me?” Finney said, “That 
dried my eyes.”—Sel. 


Ability for special work is disclosed only by test¬ 
ing. Not until he had passed through a thorough 
testing process was Abraham called the“ father of 
the faithful,” and he v r as so called only because by 
being tried, he proved himself worthy of the honor¬ 
able title.—Rev. L. M. Zimmerman. 


Had wei heard no more of Joseph but that he was 
sold by his brethren into Egypt and then falsely 
accused by a wanton mistress and cast into prison, 
w r e should have thought that God had dealt very 
hardly with him; but wdien we understand that all 
this was the way to Pharaoh’s throne, there is no 
man but would be content to be a Joseph.—Rev. 
William Sherlock. 


JSfflertimt 

From the call of Abraham, when God first told him 
he would make of him a great nation, to the deliv- 






174 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


erence of his seed out of Egypt it was 430 years, 
during the first 215 of which they were increased 
but to 70, but in the latter half those 70 multiplied 
to 600,000 fighting men. Note (1) Sometimes God’s 
provinces may seem for a great while to thwart his 
promises, and to go counter to them, that his peo¬ 
ple ’s faith may be tried, and his own power the more 
magnified. (2) Though the performance of God’s 
promises is sometimes slow, yet it is always sure; 
“at the end it shall speak and not lie.” Hab. 2:3.— 
Matthew Henry. 


Application 

In South Africa the grass is burned off twice a 
year, to have new grass for grazing purposes for 
cattle and goats. In just a few days after a fire there 
will appear, here and there over the burnt prairie, 
the beautiful Fire Lily. It is never found only 
after a fire. It is a beautiful red delicate lily while 
all around is black from recent flames. “So in our 
lives, trials either pro^e a great blessing or burden 
to us. Some of the most beautiful Christians we 
have ever met were those who went through fiery 
trials, and their lives then like sweet fragrance of 
flowers, proved a blessing to others. Sometimes 
trials may be physical suffering—for years an in¬ 
valid—but the life is so beautiful by suffering that 
many are benefited. Others have peculiar trials 
which they tell God alone, and their presence is like 
a ray of sunshine on a dark cloudy day. Trials 
make the promise sweet.”—Sel. 



©he (Ernaa 

And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called 
the place of a skull. John 19:17. 

And whosoeer doth not bear his cross, and come after me, 
cannot be my disciple. Luke 14:27. 


In the cross of Christ I glory.—John Bowring. 


Throw not the cross away: of it the crown is made. 


The best way to bear crosses is to consecrate 
them all in silence to God.—John Fletcher. 


We only bear the cross for a while, but we shall 
wear the crown to eternity.—Matthew Henry. 


The cross is to the believer the one relentless 
annihilator of all selfishness.—S. Edgar, B. A. 


The flesh ever seeks to be glorified, before it is 
crucified: exalted before it is abased.—Martin Lu¬ 
ther. 


How vainly we attempt to follow Him that was 
crucified, unless we take up our own cross daily. 
—Sel. 









176 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


In the cross, the Christian will find his greatest 
trial; but through it, his greatest triumph. 


Christ and his cross are not separable in this life, 
however they part at heaven’s door.—S. Rutherford. 

His cross reveals to the world for all time and 
eternity too, a love which shrinks from no sacrifice. 
—Ibid. 


Paul gloried in the Cross because by it the world 
was crucified unto him and he unto the world. 


It is the cross which is absent in the church life 
today. Every life of real service begins with a sac¬ 
rifice.—J. 0. McClurkan. 


The early missionaries to Fiji when asked, “Were 
you not afraid of being killed ?” the reply was, 
“No, we died before we went.”—Sel. 


In the life of Jesus, the affluent and great followed 
him until he came to the shadow of the cross then 
they forsook him. 


If we do not take up our cross daily, we do not 
come after Him, but after the world, or the prince 
of the world, or our own fleshly mind.—John Wesley. 


Death by the cross was the most ignominious that 
could be inflicted. The Roman citizen was exempt 










THE CROSS 


277 


from it; to the Tew “cursed” was every one that 
hangeth upon a tree.—Rev. W. M. Seymour. 


The cross of Christ is the sweetest burden that 
ever I bore; it is such a burden as wings are to a bird 
©r as sails to a ship to carry me forward to my 
desired haven.—S. Rutherford. 


If thou art in thy way to the kingdom, my life 
for thine thou wilt come at the cross shortly. It 
stands and hath stood, from the beginning, as a 
way-mark to the kingdom of heaven,—Rev. John 
Bunyon. 


None suffered crucifixion but those who were 
counted the meanest and vilest of men, such as 
slaves, robbers, movers of sedition, and murderers. 
What is the shame of our profession, to that of His 
sufferings !—Rev. J. Edmondson. 


At the foot of the cross there is no room for pride. 
The cross read out this lesson to the world; merit is 
impossible before God. We are not claimants for 
reward, we are but suppliants for life—a life which 
has been forfeited by guilt.—Rev. F. Robertson. 


This is the preaching that the Holy Ghost de¬ 
lights to bless. He loves to honor those who honor 
the cross. Give me the cross of Christ; for this is 
the only lever which has ever turned the world 







178 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


upside down hitherto, and made men forsake their 
sins.—Bishop Ryle. 


An imprisoned saint, under the persecution of 
Queen Mary is said to have written a friend:—“A 
prisoner for Christ! What is this for a poor worm! 
Such honor have not all the saints. Both the de¬ 
degrees which I took at the University have not 
set me so high as the honor of becoming a prisoner 
of the Lord.”—Sel. 


XrfitttuntB 

Let us not despise the humble cross, nor the ways 
of Providence, but joyfully accept all that comes 
our way as a blessing of inestimable value from 
the hand of a loving Father, who is too wise to err 
and too gracious to be unkind.—Rev. J. M. Hum¬ 
phrey. 


To “bear our cross” means we endure what is 
laid upon us without our choice, with meekness and 
resignation. We “take up our cross,” when we 
voluntarily suffer what is in our power to avoid; 
where we willingly embrace the will of God, though 
contrary to our own; when we chose what is pain¬ 
ful, because it is the will of our wise and gracious 
Creator.—John Wesley. 


The demands of Christ are high; that even life 
itself should be sacrificed for his sake; that we be 






THE CROSS 


ITS 


at least martyrs in resolution, and have so much 
of a reciprocal affection for him, as shall, like his 
love for us, be stronger than death. Yet how reason¬ 
able is the demand! Did he leave his Father’s 

m 

bosom for us, and shall we scruple to abandon our 
homes and our kindred for him? Did he expire 
on the cross for us and shall not we be ready to take 
up our crosses and follow him? Shall it not be de¬ 
lightful to us to trace his most painful steps, and 
by the most costly sacrifices to approve our grati¬ 
tude and our duty?—Rev. P. Doddridge. 


(Eh? Hmtrmftim 

2 am the resurrection, and the life, he that believeth m 
me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. John 11:25. 

Marvel not at this; for the hour is coming, in the which 
all that are in the graves shall hear his voice. And shali 
come forth: they that have done good, unto the resurrec¬ 
tion of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrec¬ 
tion of damnation. John 5:28-29. 


The body dismantled and dissolving in the grave 
is the temple still, though a temple in ruins.—Rev. 
B. M. Palmer. 


Since Death heard and obeyed Him at Lazarus r 
grave, it argues that he will hear and obey Him 
again.—Rev. W. E. Munsey. 


Resurrection is a return to life; Christ is the au¬ 
thor of that return, and of that life to which it is a 
return.—Matthew Henry. 


If a man die shall he live again? asks Job. Our 
assurance in Christ, is that we shall have an eternal 
life of body, soul and spirit—painless and death¬ 
less.—Rev. Joseph Wild. 


The resurrection of the human body is not an 








THE RESURRECTION 


181 


absurdity, for it is not contrary to human reason; 
but a mystery, for it involves the agency of infi¬ 
nite power to accomplish it.—Rev. W. E. Munsey. 


The body with all its fevers and pains and fa¬ 
tigues, has been left behind. But it is left only that 
at the resurrection, purified, glorified, spiritualized, 
it may rise again to be the home of the spirit forever. 
—Rev. A. S. Gardner, 


We shall at the resurrection have bodies purified 
and refined to the last degree, made light and agile, 
and, though they are not changed into spirit, yet 
made fit to be perpetual associates of spirits made 
perfect.—Matthew Henry. 


One angel was enough to roll away that stone; 
not to let him out, but to let you and I look in to 
see that the sepulchre was empty, to let the morn¬ 
ing light into that sepulchre to light it up that we 
might know that he is risen, “the first fruits of them 
that slept.”—D. L. Moody. 


Baron Burrson in taking his farewell of his deeply- 
loved wife said “Love, love we have loved each oth¬ 
er; love cannot cease: love is eternal: the love of 
God is eternal: live in the love of God and Christ: 
those who live in the love of God must find each 
other again though we know not how; we cannot 
be parted: we must see each other beyond.” 






182 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


Looking at these grassy mounds, the eye of faith 
sees them change into a field sown with the seeds of 
immortality. Blessed field. What flowers shall 
spring there. What a harvest shall be gathered 
there. In the neighboring fields, “whatsoever a man 
soweth that shall he also reap,” but here how great 
the difference between what is sown amid mourner’s 
tears, and what shall be reaped amid angels’ joys; 
between the poor body we restore to earth, and the 
noble form that shall spring from its ashes.—Rev. 
Guthrie. 


Christ, “the first fruits of them that slept.” The 
Jews were commanded to cut the first ripening in 
their fields and take it to Jerusalem, and lay it upon 
the altar as a pledge of the coming harvest and as 
a thank offering to God. At the end of the harvest 
they all again met at Jerusalem to celebrate the har¬ 
vest feast: which they did with sacrifices and thanks¬ 
giving for many days. Now Christ the “first 
fruits” lays upon God’s altar in heaven as a pledge 
of that glorious harvest at the end of the world, 
which will leave every old tomb tenantless and 
gather us all, soul and body both, redeemed and 
glorified into heaven.—Rev. W. E. Munsey. 


(EottrluBtmt 

Man, in his original state, was a compound being; 
his body was of dust, but his spirit w r as of God. The 
separation of these parts, is the effect of transgres- 




I 


% 

THE RESURRECTION 183 

sion. A separate state must be a very imperfect 
state to man, whose soul is peculiarly fitted for a 
material body. Through the medium of the body, 
God will both punish the wicked, and reward the 
righteous. And a union of soul and body in a state 
of purity, will be the perfection of man in heaven; 
nor can the sad effects of sin be done away without 
such a union. But the resurrection of bad men will 
render them far more capable of suffering the ven¬ 
geance of eternal fire than they can be in a separate 
state: and on that account the resurrection will 
prove to them a dreadful event.—Rev. J. Edmond¬ 
son. 



Holttum 

Choose you this day whom ye will serve. Joshua 24:15. 

And whosoever will, let him take of the water of life 
freely. Rev. 22:17. 


The will is the chief, the ruling faculty of man.— 
J. G. Murphy. 


We stand or fall in the decision of soul and not 
in our emotions. 


God saves all that he can without a violation of 
the sacred prerogative of freedom.—Fletcher. 


Man is the ouly being capable of making a moral 
choice, animals make an animal choice. 


Heaven or Hell, coupled with never-ending etern¬ 
ity, will be determined by the volition of each. 


You may be condemned against your will, because 
you sinned with your will: but you cannot be saved 
against your will.—Baxter 


Choose I must and soon must choose, holiness, or 









VOLITION 


185 


heaven lose. While what heaven loves I hate, shut 
for me is heaven’s gate.—Joseph Cook. 


The tears of our Lord over the perverseness of 
Jerusalem are witnesses of the freedom of man’s 
will to resist the grace of God.—Dean Alford. 


In heaven, saints will rejoice forever that they 
chose to be saved. In hell, sinners will wail forever 
that they chose to be lost. 


A man may lose the good things of this life against 
his will; but if he loses eternal blessings, he does so 
with his own consent.—Augustine. 


Had man not been a free, as well as an intelli¬ 
gent being, his understanding would have been as 
incapable of holiness, or any kind of virtue, as a 
tree or a block of marble.—John Wesley. 


The will is an essential condition of all intelli¬ 
gence. There can be no intelligence in the absence 
of will; there can be no will in the absence of free¬ 
dom. In the freedom of will is implied the possi¬ 
bility of evil.—Rev. W. E. Munsey. 


There is no morality nor immorality where there 
is no choice nor freedom: consequently were the 
actions of men Under an absolute control they 
would no more be answerable for their doings than 
a clock is for its motions.—Bishop Sherlock. 








186 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


The intellect furnishes the [will with, objects; 
for there can be no volition or choice without ob¬ 
jects between which to choose. Before decision the 
mind is in a state of uneasiness, hence the will is 
called to determine the choice.—James McCrie. 


Without the power of choice, character is an im¬ 
possibility. No person could be justly censured 
for doing evil if he had not the power to do right. 
No one could be justly praised for doing good if 
he had not the power to do evil.—Rev. S. B. Shaw. 


If in any sense, man be a child of God, he must 
inherit some of the traits of his paternity. Perhaps 
the most conspicuous of these is his original freedom 
of will. In that man is most godlike. Nothing 
outside the will can enslave the will. It may sur¬ 
render itself, but neither God nor the devil could 
compel it against itself.—Chas. F. Deems. 


Man is a moral agent who is capable of performing 
moral actions; and an act is rendered moral by two 
circumstances.—that it is voluntary, and that it has 
respect to some rule which determines it to be good 
or evil. Man in all ages, has been considered as an 
agent actually performing, or capable of perform¬ 
ing moral actions. No one ever thought of making 
laws to regulate the conduct of the inferior animals: 
or of holding them up to public censure or appro¬ 
bation.—Richard Watson. 





VOLITION 


187 


Srflertuma 

Cain chose to offer a bloodless sacrifice and became 
a murderer, a fugitive, and a wanderer in the earth. 

Saul chose to disobey God, and both wrecked his 
life and lost his soul. 

David chose to commit adultery, and the sword 
never departed from his house. 

The rich man chose to live without God, and, 
4 ‘in hell he lifted up his eyes in torments.” 

Judas chose to betray his Lord, and in a few hours 
went to “his own place.” 

Joseph chose purity and holiness, and was exalted 
to second place in the kingdom of Egypt. 

Moses chose to suffer affliction with his people, 
and later led them out of bondage. 

Lazarus, the sick beggar, chose to be true to his 
God, “and was carried by angles into Abraham’s 
bosom.” 

Stephen chose to be faithful in preaching the 
truth, and saw the “heavens opened and the Son of 
man standing on the right hand of God.” 

Paul chose to suffer the loss of all things, but won 
Clmst and a crown of righteousness. 


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They are not of the world, even as I am not of the 
world. John 17:16. 

Love not the world, neither the things that are in the 
world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father 
is not in him. I John 2:15. See also Jas. 4:4. 


The whole frame-work of society, almost, is hos¬ 
tile to religion.—C. G. Finney. 


The heart’s affections will certainly twine about 
something—if not God, then, of necessity, the w r orld. 
—Sel. 


Professing Christians show by following the fash¬ 
ions of the world, that they do in fact love the world. 
C. G. Finney. 


“Love not the world,” in the sense of desiring 
to be like it or of it, but love the world as God does 
in the sense of desiring to save it. 


The three persons who asked to be excused from 
attending the “great supper,” Luke 14, were all de¬ 
tained by some form of worldliness.—Dean Alford. 


He who gives his heart to the world robs God of 









WORLDLINESS 


189 


it; and, in snatching at the shadow of earthly good, 
loses substantial and eternal blessedness.—Adam 
Clarke. 


A little boy trying to urge his mother to go to the 
circus said, “0 mother if you will go to the circus 
once you will never go to the prayer-meeting again.” 

A fisherman informs us that the trout always ex¬ 
hibits the color of water in which it lives. In like 
manner professed believers reflect faithfully the 
quality of the influences under which they live.— 
Sel. 


The command which Scripture gives to the believ-i 
er is to live in the world as one who does not belong 
to it, a stranger in it and a pilgrim through it, as 
a foreigner whose “citizenship is in heaven.”— 
Philip Mauro. 


Since the beginning of the world no professing 
Christian ever dreamed that he was imitating the 
example of Jesus Christ or honoring the Christian 
religion in a theatre, a ball-room, or a splendid 
party of pleasure.—Barnes. 


The world, by professing Christianity, is so far 
from being a less dangerous enemy than it was be¬ 
fore, that it has by its favors destroyed more Christ¬ 
ians than ever it did by the most violent persecu¬ 
tions.—William Law. 







190 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


IVhere one thousand are destroyed by the world’s 
frowns, ten thousand are destroyed by the world’s 
smiles. The world, siren-like, sings us and sinks us; 
like Judas, it kisses us and betrays us; like Joab it 
kisses us and smites us under the fifth rib.—Brooks. 


Think, how many poor souls see heaven lost and 
lie now expecting a miserable eternity, for their ser¬ 
vice and homage to a world that thinks itself every 
whit as well without them, and is just as merry as 
it was when they were in it.—William Law. 


Women are in general at as much pains and cost 
in their dress as if by it they were to be recommend¬ 
ed both to God and man. It is however, in every 
ease, the argument either of a shallow mind, or of 
a vain and corrupt heart.—Adam Clarke. 


The gravitation of the world is down. Drummond 
says the only remedy against gravitation is empti¬ 
ness, “for gravitation has no power on emptiness.” 
Emptying of the world deprives the world-power 
any hold on the soul. Jesus said, “The prince of 
this world cometh and hath nothing in me.” The 
world is always after its own.—Sel. 


During the summer a man hung his canary’s cage 
outside the window. Every day a number of spar¬ 
rows came and congregated near the cage. Before 
the summer ended, the canary had lost all his song 






WORLDLINESS 


191 


and could only chirp like the sparrows. Many pro¬ 
fessed Christians have lost their song because they 
lived too close to the world. 


There is an Oriental story that the vessel of an 
Arabian sailor was attracted by a magnetic rock 
which rose out of the Indian Ocean, and which drew 
from the ship all metalic bolts and clamps, and let 
it pull to pieces and drown all the passengers. The 
fiction of the story is a truthful metaphor of the voy¬ 
age of life, This magnetic rock is the world.—Rev. 
W. E. Munsey. 


When either women or men spend much time, 
cost, and attention on decorating their persons, it 
affords a painful proof that within there is little 
excellence, and that they are endeavoring to supply 
the want of mind and moral good by the feeble and 
silly aids of dress anl ornament. Were religion out 
of the question, common sense would say in all these 
things, “Be decent, but be moderate and modest.— 
Adam Clarke. 


Objection. “No matter how we dress, if our 
hearts are right?” Your heart right! Then your 
heart may be right when your conduct is all w r rong. 
Just as well might the profane swearer say, “No 
matter what wmrds I speak, if my heart is right.’’ 
No, your heart is not right, unless your conduct is 
right. What is outward conduct, but the acting out 
of the heart? If your heart was right you would 





192 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


not wish to follow the fashions of the world.—Rev. 
C. G. Finney. 


Are you going to walk in the street? Take care 
how you dress. What is that on your head? What 
does that gaudy ribbon, and those ornaments upon 
your dress, say to every one that meets you? It 
makes the impression that you wish to be thought 
pretty. Take care! You might just as well write 
on your clothes, “No truth in religion.” It says, 
“Give me dress, give me fashion, give me flattery, 
and I am happy.” The world understands this 
testimony as you walk the streets. You are, “living 
epistles, known and read of all men.”—Rev. Chas. 
G. Finney. 


Stpflerlimta 

The world betrays the soul as well as the hopes; 
it betrays a man’s soul to ruin, like sweet poison, 
that goes down pleasantly but kills presently. The 
silken cords of the world have taken many a prison¬ 
er, and they have proven their fetters, which they 
could never break again. As Judas said of our 
blessed Lord, “Whomsoever I kiss, take Him, hold 
Him fast.” So the world, being the devil’s agent, 
says, “Whomsoever I kiss and embrace, and embrac- 
eth me mutually, and setteth his heart upon me, take 
him, hold him fast.”—Ralph Erskine. 




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O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness: fear 
before him, all the earth. Psalm 96:9. 

But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worship¬ 
pers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for 
the Father seeketh such to worship him. John 4:23. 


Our worship should be spiritual and thus be suit¬ 
able to the nature of God.—John Wesley. 


It concerns us to be right, not only in the object 
of our worship but in the manner of it.—Matthew 
Henry. 


To be spiritual in worship, is to have our souls 
gathered and bound up wholly in themselves, and’ 
offered to God.—Charnock. 


Public worship is like the public well of a city, 
from whence people go and fetch water for the use 
of their private homes.—Erskine. 


Worship is man’s highest end, for it is the employ¬ 
ment of his highest faculties and affections on the 
sublimest object.—W. E. Channing. 







194 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


Worship implies that the sovereignty of God is 
recognized in ideality and reality. God is truly 
recognized as a sovereign only when we have sub¬ 
mitted our will to His by an unreserved obedience. 
—Dr. D. Pressense. 


God is Lord of my body also; and therefore chal- 
lengeth as well reverent gesture as inward devotion. 
I will ever, in my prayers, either stand as a servant, 
before my Master; or kneel as a subject, to my 
Prince.— Bishop Hall. 


When thou goest to God in any duty, take thy 
heart aside, and say, “0 my soul, I am now address¬ 
ing myself to the greatest work that ever a creature 
was employed about. I am going into the awful 
presence of God, about business of everlasting mo¬ 
ment.—Salter. 


If we do not worship God, who is a spirit, in 
spirit, we neither give him the glory due to his name, 
and so do not perform the act of worship, nor can we 
hope to obtain his favor and acceptance and so 
we miss the end of worship.—Matthew Henry. 


Though inen might have worshiped God in 
secret, yet the appointment of a certain day, to be 
entirely devoted to His service, has a tendency to 
spiritualize our minds, and to make everyone in some 
respects useful in furthering the welfare of the 
whole community.—Simeon. 









WORSHIP 


195 


Were it not for public, private worship would 
soon be at an end. To this, under God, the Church of 
Christ owes its being and its continuance. To 
worship God publicly is the duty of every man; and 
no man can be guiltless who neglects it.—Adam 
Clarke. 


The highest ambition of a worshiper if he be a 
true worshiper, is to imitate and emulate the char¬ 
acter which he worships. The philosophic result 
is, the character of the worshiper continually as¬ 
similates to the character of the being he worships. 
—Rev. W. E. Munsey. 


The angels veil themselves with their wings be¬ 
fore His face, while they cry: *‘ Holy, holy, holy 
is the Lord.” To what depth oughtest thou there¬ 
fore to abase thyself in worship, 0 thou who art not 
an angel, nor a seraph, 0 man! creature of a day, and 
fallen, loaded with sins and yet pardoned.—Ibid. 


A man worships God in spirit, when, under the 
influence of the Holy Ghost, he brings all his affec¬ 
tions, appetites, and desires to the throne of God; 
he worships him in truth, when every purpose and 
passion of his heart, and when every act of his re¬ 
ligious worship is guided and regulated by the 
word of God.—Adam Ciarke. 


Our union with one another in public worship 
is only less important than our union with God. 






196 


CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS 


We may not perfectly understand why this is so, 
but it must be so. By the structure of our nature, 
by the constitution of the world it is perfectly plain 
that God w r ants men to be one. In public worship 
this design of God is recognized and honored; and 
Sunday by Sunday strong and imperishable links 
are being forged which wdll bind us together through 
eternity.—R. W. Dale. 


(Exmrlitaum 

He is a profane person that performs the duties 
of sacred worship slightly and superficially: all our 
duties ought to be warmed with zeal, w r inged with 
affection, and shot up into heaven from the whole 
bent of the soul. Our whole heart, must go into them, 
and the strength and vigor of our spirits must 
diffuse themselves into every part of them. Truly 
all our Christian sacrifices, both of praise and pray¬ 
er, must be offered up to God with fire; and that 
fire which alone can sanctify them must be darted 
down from heaven—the celestial flame of zeal and 
love, which hath a natural tendency to ascend 
thither again, and to carry up our hearts and souls 
upon its wings with it.—Bishop Hopkins. 









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